\AkA.  •:<  I  .vIS HAW 


'RY    OF        IKE    COUNTY 


OF  THE 
UNIVERSITY 
Of    ILLINOIS 


977.345 
G88h 


Illinois  Historical  Survey 


HISTORY  OF  PIKE  COUNTY 


A  CENTENNIAL  ADDRESS 


DELIVERED  BY 

HON.  WILLIAM  A.  GRIMSHAW 

AT 

P1TTSFIELD,  PIKE  COUNTY,  ILLINOIS 
JULY  4,  1876 


HISTORY  OF  PIKE  COUNTY 


DELIVERED  BY 

HON.  WILLIAM  A.  GRIMSHAW 

AT 

PITTSFIELD,  PIKE  COUNTY,  ILLINOIS 
JULY  4,  1876 


77- 


Address  of  the  Committee  of  Invitation 


Pittsfield,  Pike  County,  Illinois,  June  3,  187  K. 
^  TO  THE  PEOPLE  OP  PIKE  COUNTY: 

At  a  meeting  held  at  the  court  house  in  Pittsfield,  on  the  27th  day 

of  May  last,  it  was  determined     that     the     approaching     Fourth  of  July 

should  be  celebrated  in  an  appropriate  manner,  on  the  Public  Square  in 

"  Pittsfield,   by   a   basket   picnic,    with    addresses,    music,    and    fireworks   at 

night,  and  the  undersigned  were  appointed  a  committee  to  extend  an  in- 

-^  vitation  to  the  entire  county  to  take  part  in  the  celebration. 

In  discharging  the  duty  devolved  upon  us  by  the  action  of  the  meet- 
1  ing,  we  respectfully  call  your  attention  to  the  following  resolution,  which 
^recently  passed  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United 
>  ^States,  at  Washington: 

"BE  IT  RESOLVED,  By  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of 

^s  the  United   States  of  America:      That   it  be  and   is   hereby  recommended 

j  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  to  the  people  of  the  several 

^  States  that  they   assemble  in   the  several  counties  and   towns  on  the  ap- 

*~$  preaching  anniversary  of  our  National  Independence,  and  that  they  cause 

-^to  have  delivered  on  such  day  an  historical  sketch  of  said  county  or  town 

C  from  its  formation,  and  th.it  a  copy  of  said  sketch  may  be  filed  in  print 

Jor  manuscript  in  the  Clerk's  office  of  said  County,  and  an  additional  copy 
in  print  or  manuscript  be  filed  in  the  office  of  the  Librarian   of  Congress 
to  the  intent  that  a  complete  record  may  be  thus  obtained  of  the  progress 
^of  our  institutions  during  the  first  centennial  of  their  existence." 

In  pursuance  of  the  action  of  Congress  the  President  of  the  United 
^States  and  the  Governor  of  this  State  have  issued  proclamations,  request- 
^  ing  the  people  of  each  County  to  meet  at  suitable  places,  and  celebrate 

Vhis  first  Centennial  year  of  our  national  existence,  in  the  manner  in  the 
esolution  we  have  quoted,  suggested. 

Pike,  as  the  mother  of  all  the  counties  North  and  West  of  the  Illinois 
has  a  history  replete  with  interest,  and   it  will  be  but  discharging 
a  just  obligation  due  to  those  who  shall  follow  us  upon  the  stage  of  ac- 
tion, if,  while  meeting  to  celebrate  the  Centennial  on  the  coming  Fourth, 
that  history  shall  be  presented  in  such   form  as  to  perpetuate  it  for  the 
*  future. 

In  discharging  the  duties  assigned  to  us  let  us  call  your  attention  to 
the  importance  of  the  day  we  propose  to  celebrate.  One  hundred  years 
ago  our  forefathers,  oppressed  by  a  British  Government  then  ruled  by  a 
tyrannous  King,  conceived  the  bold  idea  of  forming  an  independent  gov- 
ernment for  themselves.  The  principal  theory  of  government  up  to  that 
time  had  been  that  the  powers  of  government  were  inherent  in  the  ruler, 
who  ruled  by  divine  right,  and  that  the  people  derived  their  rights  from 
the  government.  The  founders  of  our  admirable  system  reversed  the 
whole  order  of  government,  and  declared  that  the  people  were  capable 
of  self-government,  that  all  power  was  inherent  in  them,  and  that  govern- 
ments derive  all  just  power  from  the  consent  of  the  governed. 


HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY 


They  made  the  government  the  creature  of  the  people,  and  limited 
it  to  the  exercise  of  such  powers  only  as  should  be  delegated  to  it  by  the 
people.  Under  it  the  rulers  and  officers  are  servants  of  the  people.  Thus 
the  people  are  sovereign  and  rule  themselves  through  officers  chosen  by 
them  for  that  purpose. 

By  the  Constitution,  which  is  a  delegation  of  powers  to  the  general 
government,  our  people  have  secured  more  religious  and  political  liberty 
than  is  enjoyed  by  any  other  government  on  earth. 

That  you  fully  appreciate  the  blessings  of  such  a  government,  and 
revere  the  memory  of  the  good  and  wise  men  who  established  and  de- 
fended it  in  its  infancy,  is  fully  attested  by  the  patriotic  devotion  with 
which  you  defended  it  when  in  peril.  One  hundred  years  of  the  practical 
workings  of  our  government  have  fully  proved  the  wisdom  of  its  founders. 

Though  many  things  have  occurred  to  mar  our  happiness  in  our  ex- 
istence as  a  government,  we  confidently  repeat  that  today  we  enjoy  the 
most  free,  least  oppressive,  and  most  perfect  system  of  government  of  any 
people  on  the  earth. 

In  its  practical  workings  there  may  be  and  doubtless  are  defects,  not 
attributable  to  the  system,  but  to  its  execution,  but  the  remedy  for  all 
such  defects  is  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  whose  government  it  is,  and  if 
they  do  not  remedy  them  they  should  not  complain.  All  that  is  needed  is 
virtue,  intelligence,  and  honesty,  to  make  the  government  all  it  was 
destined  to  be  by  its  founders. 

In  view  of  these  facts,  fellow-citizens  of  Pike,  may  we  not  urge  you 
to  renew  your  devotion  to  the  country  by  laying  aside  all  other  business 
and  coming  up  to  the  county  seat  on  the  Fourth  of  July  next,  EN  MASSE, 
to  celebrate  the  One  Hundreth  Anniversary  of  our  National  Independence. 

Especially  do  we  extend  an  invitation  to  the  early  settlers  of  our 
county  to  be  present  and  to  take  part  in  the  exercises  of  the  day.  As 
pioneers  in  the  great  work  of  subduing  and  bringing  into  cultivation  the 
fair  land  wherein  we  dwell,  of  establishing  thousands  of  happy  homes,  and 
creating  the  religious,  social  and  material  prosperity  that  exist  within  our 
borders,  they  will  meet  with  a  hearty  greeting  from  their  successors  on 
that  day.  Let  them  then  come,  and  witness  the  outpouring  of  a  people 
who  will  on  that  occasion  come  Irom  the  hill-tops,  plains  and  valleys,  that 
they  nave  known  but  as  the  homes  of  the  savages,  man  and  beast. 

In  pursuance  of  the  power  conferred  upon  the  Committee,  they  have 
chosen  as  the  historian  of  the  county  for  that  day,  the  Hon.  Wm.  A. 
Grimshaw,  himself  or.c  of  the  earliest  settlers  in  the  county,  and  who, 
by  reason  thereof,  and  his  eminent  ability,  is  most  fully  qualified  for  the 
position. 

The  Committee  would  most  respectfully  urge  upon  the  citizens  ot 
each  town  to  proceed  immediately  to  the  selection  of  a  town  historian  to 
the  end  that,  with  the  general  history  of  the  county,  to  be  prepared  by 
the  County  Historian,  that  of  each  town  as  a  separate  municipal  organi- 
zation may  be  preserved  for  the  future  Centennial  Historian. 

C.   L.   HIGBEE,   Chairman. 

WM.    A.    GRIMSHAW. 

JAMES  S.   IRWIN. 

WM.   R.   ARCHER. 

STROTHER   GRIGSBY. 

J.    M.    BUSH. 

RICHARD    M.    ATKINSON. 


HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY 


Ladies,  Gentlemen  and  Fellow  Citizens : 

With  gratitude  to  Almighty  God,  who  ruleth  the  destinies  of  nations, 
as  of  individuals,  we  welcome  this  our  Nation's  birthday. 

This  Centennial  day  brings  evidence  to  us  of  the  wisdom  and  fore- 
sight of  the  Fathers  of  this  National  Government. 

How  proud  we  all  should  and  do  feel  that  we  are  one  illustrious, 
powerful  nation,  and  not  divided  into  jealous,  intriguing  states;  as  a 
people,  free  as  the  air  we  breathe,  we  are  yet  bound  with  the  cords  of 
Nationality  to  the  great  idea  of  our  Fathers,  expressed  by  a  Patriot,  "The 
Union,  one  and  inseparable."  Free  as  to  all  our  individual  rights  and 
with  no  encroachment  upon  our  rights  as  citizens  of  Illinois,  or  of  any 
other  State.  Subject  to  the  universal  law  of  civilization,  which  requires 
restraint  on  the  actions  of  individuals,  in  furtherance  and  protection  of 
the  general  good  of  our  fellow  men.  Long  may  we  love,  cherish  and  pro- 
tect our  United  States,  and  love  with  our  hearts'  devotion  the  Flag  of  Our 
Fathers,  the  emblem  of  our  great  and  glorious  nation,  renowned  to  earth's 
remotest  bounds. 

The  office  of  historian  for  this  occasion  was  conferred  by  the  Com- 
mittee, appointed  by  a  meeting,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  published  report 
thereof,  to  be  annexed  to  the  proceedings  of  this  day. 

'Sensible  of  the  high  honor  which  the  office  of  historian  confers,  I 
shrink  from  the  effort  to  discharge  it;  by  many  it  will  be  said  these  are 
but  dry  details,  such  is  often  the  task  of  the  historian,  and  in  asmuch  as 
the  scope  of  my  duty,  on  this  occasion,  is  circumscribed  by  the  reduced 
limits  of  Pike  County,  as  compared  with  its  original  boundaries,  the  sub- 
jects of  greatest  interest  are  in  a  measure  withdrawn  from  our  consider- 
tion  in  this  sketch,  and  yet  it  is  justifiable  to  claim  for  Pike  County  part 
of  the  history  of  her  former  territory,  now  embraced  in  towns  and  cities 
and  counties  of  high  repute,  of  great  extent,  solid  in  wealth,  and  leading 
in  all  the  incidents  which  make  conspicuous  and  renowned  the  present 
social  and  political  position  of  a  part  of  old  Pike,  now  beyond  her  limits. 

In  this  Centennial  year  we  may  indulge  in  patriotism,  and  yet  in 
days  gone  by,  it  is  evident  from  the  name  of  our  loved,  beautiful  and 
favored  county,  that  upon  it  was  bestowed  a  name  worthy  of  its  present 
high  standing,  as  a  part  of  the  great  and  fertile  State  of  Illinois;  the 
limits  of  the  original  territory  of  Pike  County  are  not  excelled  in  scenery, 
fertility,  he.ilthfulness  and  in  the  various  resources  which  serve  to  form  a 
great,  civilized  country,  in  this  advanced  age.  The  name  of  our  county 
was  given  in  honor  of  the  gallant  General  Pike,  for  whom  Pike's  Peak  is 
called. 

We  have  assembled  today  to  contemplate  the  stupendous  events  of  a 
Century. 

Our  nation,  renowned  as  far  as  fame  has  spread,  unsurpassed  in  all 
the  essentials  of  greatness,  by  any  country  on  the  Globe,  is  but  in  her 
early  life,  compared  with  the  nations  of  the  old  world. 

One  hundred  years  ago  the  thirteen  feeble  colonies  entered  upon  a 
desperate  political  enterprise.  How  discerning  the  great  men  who  pro- 
jected the  government  which  supplanted  the  old  Monarchy  and  exchanged 
a  government  by  and  for  the  people,  a  representative  Democracy,  for  the 
old  form  of  King,  Lords  and  Commons. 

Grand  is  the  success  of  the  United  States  of  North  America  in  her 
system  of  government  and  in  all  that  exalts  a  great,  prosperous  and  free 
nation.  Imagine  the  scene  if  the  heroic,  stately  Washington,  the  sage 


HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY 


Jefferson,  the  wise  Adamses,  the  eloquent  Patrick  Henry  and  all  the  men 
of  civic  and  military  renown,  could  now  visit  us,  they  who  laid  up  in 
store  for  us,  or  won  by  their  mighty  prowess,  guided  by  God's  good  provi- 
dence, the  inestimable  blessings  we  enjoy.  Their  deeds  immortalized 
them  and  conferred  on  us  all  the  greatness  of  the  past,  since  the  memor- 
able day  of  July  4,1776. 

THE  LIMITS  OF  THIS  HISTORY 

We  are  precluded  from  going  into  details  as  much  as  we  could  desire. 
This  history  is  prepared  in  the  intervals  of  those  pursuits  which  could 
not  be  deferred,  and  it  is  impossible  to  do  justice  to  the  entire  field  which 
might  be  embraced.  We  must  content  ourselves  with  a  rapid  review  of 
the  most  prominent  incidents  and  abstain  from  writing  extended  bio- 
graphies or  even  attempting  a  full  history,  many  subjects  will  unavoid- 
ably be  ommitted,  numerous  persons  of  prominence  will  not  be  spoken  of. 

The  aim  has  been  to  give  so  much  of  the  lives  of  prominent  men, 
especially  those  who  served  the  county  ,  state  and  nation  as  will  illus- 
trate the  history  of  Pike  County  and  to  some  degree  present  the  claims 
of  the  most  active  or  prominent  in  forming  its  history. 

The  citizens  of  this  county  have  always  been  marked  for  a  love  of 
our  national  government,  for  participation  in  all  state  measures  to  pro- 
mote the  common  good  of  Illinois. 

With  one  brief  exception,  the  period  of  the  Vigilance  Committee, 
local  government  has  always  been  of  an  orderly  character.  The  brief 
excitement  of  that  period  led  to  more  efficient  laws  for  the  protection  of 
society  and  thus  good  came  out  of  evil.  The  escape  of  criminals  from 
punishment  led  to  the  organization  of  the  Vigilance  Committee.  "From 
seeming  evil  still  educing  good."  Tragic  scenes  are  not  of  this  history. 

No  fratricidal  strife,  no  display  of  brothers  in  battle  array,  with 
deadly  cannon  and  all  the  dread  habiliments  of  war  are  portrayed  here. 

The  life  of  our  citizens  has  been  with  few  exceptions  that  of  peace- 
ful farmers  and  townsmen,  busy  in  the  affairs  of  domestic  life.  Thus 
your  historian  has  no  startling  tales  to  tell. 

Still  as  tht  current  of  your  own  gentle  river  Illinois,  with,  a  few 
.swells  in  the  stream  of  life,  when  wars,  waged  beyond  the  limits  of  our 
present  county,  called  off  our  men  to  war,  has  been  the  life  of  your  peo- 
plp.  Industry  has  prevailed.  Education  has  had  its  marked  influence 
and  the  holy  gospel,  taught  in  its  beauty  and  simplicity,  has  pervaded 
your  every  walk  in  life.  Crime  has,  notwithstanding  been  perpetrated, 
to  be  brought  generally  to  condign  punishment.  Such  is  generally  the 
end  of  those  who  violate  laws,  human  and  divine. 

PIKE  COUNTY,  HER  EXTENT  AND  ORGANIZATION 

This  county,  once  embracing  the  fairest  portions  of  the  Eden-liko 
State  of  Illinois,  yet  retaining  in  her  limits  land  beautiful  to  look  upon, 
desirable  to  inhabit  and  famed  for  her  fair  daughters,  her  gallant  sons, 
prosperous  farmers  and  mechanics,  able  professional  men  and1  legislators, 
her  present  territory  equal  yet  almost  to  some  of  the  old  thirteen  states, 
owes  much  if  not  all  of  this  to  the  patriotism  and  foresight  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary fathers. 

Contemplate  the  vastness  of  Pike  county,  as  she  was,  when  organized 
by  the  act  of  the  Legislature  of  1821  in  these  words: 


HISTORY  OF  PIKE  COUNTY 


AN  ACT  TO  FORM  A  NEW  COUNTY  ON  THE  BOUNTY  LANDS — 
APPROVED  JANUARY  31,  1821. 

SECTION  1.  Be  it  enacted  by  the  People  of  the  State  of  Illinois, 
represented  in  the  general  assembly,  That  all  that  tract  of  country  within 
the  following  boundaries,  to-wit:  beginning  at  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois 
river  and  running  thence  up  the  middle  of  said  river  to  the  fork  of  the 
same,  thence  up  the  south  fork  of  said  river  until  it  strikes  the  state  line 
of  Indiana,  thence  north  with  said  line  to  the  north  boundary  line  of  this 
state,  thence  west  with  said  line  to  the  west  boundary'  line  of  this  state 
and  thence  with  said  line  to  the  place  of  beginning,  shall  constitute  a 
separate  county,  to  be  called  Pike. 

"Oh  Christ!    it  is  a  delicious  sight  to  see, 

What  heaven  hath  done  for  this  delicious  land. 
What  fruits  of  fragrance  blush  on  every  tree; 
What  goodly  prospects  o'er  the  hills  expand." 

To  repeat  the  extent  of  the  boundaries.  On  the  south,  begin  at  the 
junction  of  the  Illinois  and  Mississippi  rivers,  thence  follow  the  Illinois 
to  the  fork  of  the  same,  meaning  the  Kankakee,  thence  to  the  line  of  the 
state  of  Indiana,  thence  North  and  West  embracing  the  territory  from 
Chicago,  following  on  the  line  of  Wisconsin  to  the  Mississippi  river,  in- 
cluding the  famed  lead  mines  of  Galena,  and  to  the  channel  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, thence  descending  to  the  place  of  beginning. 

First  note  the  beautiful,  still  gliding  river,  the  Illinois,  then  observe 
the  majestic  Father  of  Waters.  Traverse  all  this  territory,  great  in  ex- 
tent, formerly  the  home  of  savage  tribes  of  Indians;  the  land  marked  by 
the  tread  of  the  buffalo  and  dotted  over  with  the  graves  and  mounds,  the 
relics  of  extinct  races,  the  fierce  brute  creation  and  game  and  fish  abound- 
ing, prairies  illimitable,  adorned  with  flowers  of  gorgeous  hue,  fruits  de- 
licious in  profusion  and  great  variety,  forests  of  'vast  size  filled  with 
gigantic  trees  and  of  many  species,  rivers  bounding  unfettered  by  man's 
contrivances,  then  no  locks  and  dams  existed  thereon,  fish  in  myriads 
were  then  the  dwellers  in  those  rivers,  and  these  all  existed  in  1821  when 
Pike  county  was  struck  off  by  name  from  the  older  settlements  and  the 
few  counties  then  existing  in  Illinois. 

The  territory  of  Pike  county,  as  laid  off  in  1821,  was  cut  off  from 
Madison  county.  The  counties  then  existing  and  created  in  January. 
1821,  were,  Sangamo,  Greene,  Madison,  Pike,  St.  Clair,  Bond,  Montgomery, 
Fayette,  Washington,  Monroe,  Randolph,  Jackson,  Union,  Alexander, 
Clark,  Crawford,  Lawrence,  Edwards,  Wayne,  White,  Hamilton,  Jefferson, 
Franklin,  Johnson,  Gallatin,  Pope,  all  South  and  East  of  the  river  Illinois 
excepting  Pike,  twenty-six  in  all.  About  one-half  the  century  since  our 
Nation  was  pronounced  by  the  Declaration  of  Independence  to  be  frer 
and  independent  has  elapsed  since  the  organization,  and  see  how  changed 
Pike  county  is.  Behold  the  marvellous  picture,  unsurpassed  in  history; 
if  we  contemplate  Pike  county,  as  its  original  territory  was,  and  view  its 
almost  superhuman  bounds  to  its  present  condition. 

THE    POPULATION    OF    ILLINOIS 

Illinois  was  created  a  territory,  off  Indiana  territory,  in  1809,  in  1818 
a  State.  We  are  now  living  under  the  third  Constitution,  framed  for  our 
guidance  by  the  voluntary  act  of  the  people.  In  1810  the  census  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Illinois  was  but  twelve  thousand,  two  hundred  and  eighty- 


two;   in  1829,  55,211;  in   1830,   157, 44g;   in  1835,  272,427;    in  1870,  over 
two  and  one-half  millions  by  the  last  nation.il  census. 

About  1835  the  Illinois  &  Michigan  Canal  was  arresting  the  attention 
of  emigrants  and  speculators,  it  being  a  startling  novelty,  but  wise  public 
work.  Cook  and  Duncan,  of  Illinois,  deserve  the  laurels  for  this  grand 
work,  thereby  uniting  the  waters  of  Lake  Michigan  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

Originally  this  canal  was  about  one  hundred  miles  in  length.  It 
serves  a  great  purpose,  economizing  and  facilitating  the  traffic  in  stone, 
lumber  and  other  heavy  articles.  This  canal  has  been  extended  and  deep- 
ened since  its  first  coming  into  use. 

In  1830  the  population  of  Pike  county,  in  its  present  limits,  was 
3,396;  in  1835  it  had  more  than  doubled,  then  mostly  composed  of  a 
farming  population,  the  towns  up  to  that  date  being  few  and  small.  Now 
our  population  approximates  thirty-eight  thousand,  and  yet  we  have  no 
large  city,  but  many  interesting  towns  and  villages. 

Up  to  1830  the  most  noted  places  or  towns  in  Pike  county,  before  its 
subdivision,  were  Peoria,  then  known  as  Fort  Clark;  Warsaw,  then  called 
Fort  Edwards.  Quincy  was  a  very  small  place,  and  other  towns,  now 
thriving  county  seats,  were  just  starting.  In  1830  Cook  county  was  laid 
off,  it  once  being  embraced  in  Pike  county. 

There  was  in  the  limits  of  Cook  county,  an  Indian  locality,  Chicagoux, 
so  called  as  early  as  1726;  thus  you  see  we  may  trace  earlier  settlers  than 
the  Rosses,  and  Wheelocks,  of  Atlas,  and  Garret  Van  Duesen,  of  Blue 
river,  the  latter  the  forerunner  of  Jonathan  Frye  as  a  miller. 

The  Indians  say  of  the  place  we  now  call   Chicago,  "the  first  white    ' 
man  who  settled  here  was  a  negro."     His  name  was  Jean  Baptiste  Point 
Au  Sable,  a  native  of  St.  Domingo,  who  went  to  Chicago  in  1796;  this  man 
afterwards   died   in   Peoria.      At   Peoria,     also,     French     settlement    ante- 
dated the  settlement  .of  the  present  Pike  county. 

Observe  what  a  grand  array  of  counties  has  sprung  up  from  the  sub- 
division of  the  original  territory  of  Pike  county.  How  historic  the  names 
of  these  counties!  See  the  map  of  the  old  Military  Tract,  once  the  almost 
entire  source  of  Revenue  to  the  State,  by  its  land  taxes,  beginning  with 
Calhoun  and  running  up  to  Warren,  Mercer,  Henry  and  Knox  on  the 
North.  Some  of  the  counties  in  that  tract  have  been  subdivided,  as 
Schuyler  had  Brown  set  off  from  her,  Warren  was  divided  and  Henderson 
created.  Putnam  was  a  large  county,  lying  on  both  sides  of  the  Illinois  ; 
river,  and  Stark  was  cut  off  therefrom. 

Eighteen   other  counties  have   been   created   from  old   Pike  North   of 
the   "Military  Tract."      In   1832   the   Sacs   and   Fox   Indians  devastated   a   I 
portion  of  the  country  from  Galena  to  the  Yellow  Banks,  or  Oquawka,  in   j 
Warren,   now  Henderson,  that   being   the   Black   Hawk   war.      Settlements   ' 
were  very  sparse  then  from  Galena  to  Quincy,  and  also  across  to  Chicago. 
Now  see  the  cities  and  towns,  populous,  beautiful,  full  of  energy  and  in- 
dustry, and  the  farms  unsurpassed  in  fertility  and  comfort. 

To  revert,  in  1827  the  Winnebago  Indians  by  an  outbreak  near 
Galena,  on  Fevre  river,  got  up  a  little  war,  soon  ended.  At  those  dates 
Rock  Island  was  a  village,  Dixon  not  existing,  Galena  a  small  place,  but 
the  largest  North  of  St.  Louis,  and  larger  than  Chicago  up  to  1836,  at  the 
sale  of  the  canal  lands.  Galena  was  famed  then  more  than  now  for  her 
lead  mines.  Then  there  was  no  Mol'.ne  ;.nd  her  steel  plough  factory,  and 
wooden  mould  board  ploughs  were  the  great  ploughs  of  the  day. 

Time  and  space  forbid  to  recall  all  the  progress  of  every  part  of  old 


HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY 


Pike,  the  census  of  the  counties,  cities  and  towns  in  the  territory  once 
Pike,  but  now  in  the  newer  counties  would  disclose  vast  growth  in  all  the 
essentials  of  a  prosperous  country.  Chicago,  Quincy,  Peoria,  and  the 
other  cities  outstripping  in  growth  anything  preceding  them  on  this  con- 
tinent. 

PIKE  COUNTY 

Let  us  confine  ourselves  for  a  time  to  the  actual  territory  now  within 
this  county,  and  consider  its  progress  and  present  condition. 

THE    FIRST   COUNTY    SEAT 

This  was  at  Cole's  Grove  (now  obsolete)  but  near  Gilead,  in  the 
limits  of  Calhoun  county,  there  was  held  the  first  Probate  'Court  on  the 
23rd  of  May,  1821,  and  the  first  Circuit  Court  for  Pike  County,  John 
Reynolds  as  Judge,  beginning  on  the  1st  day  of  October,  1821.  At  that 
court  a  noted  and  peculiar  trial  took  place  of  two  Indians  for  murder, 
and  the  following  full  record  of  the  case  is  now  to  be  seen  at  Pittsfield, 
in  Volume  1,  Page  4,  of  the  Records  of  the  Circuit  Court. 

WEDNESDAY   MORNING,   OCTOBER    30,    1821. 

The  People,  &c.,  vs.  Pemesan  and  Shonwennekeh  (Two  Indians). 

The  jury  in  this  cause  came  into  Court  and  returned  the  follow- 
ing verdict,  to-wit:  We  have  agreed  in  our  verdict,  according  to  the 
evidence  before  us,  that  Pemesan,  otherwise  called  Traveler,  is  guilty 
of  manslaughter,  and  that  the  other,  called  Spice  Bush,  is  not  guilty. 
It  is  therefore  ordered  and  adjudged  by  the  Court  that  the  said 
Shonwennekeh,  otherwise  called  Spice  Bush,  go  hence  and  be  wholly 
discharged  and  acquitted.  And  it  is  therefore  further  ordered  and 
adjudged  by  said  Court,  that  the  said  Pemesan,  otherwise  called 
Traveler,  make  his  fine  to  the  People  of  this  'State  in  the  sum  of 
twenty-five  cents,  and  be  imprisoned  for  the  term  of  twenty-four 
hours. 

The  earliest  record  book  of  the  proceedings  of  the  County  Commis- 
sioners, prior  to  the  June  Term,  1832,  is  lost.  A  fire  took  place  at  Atlas 
which  consumed  some  records  and  files  of  the  Courts,  and  it  is  probable 
the  aforesaid  record  was  then  lost. 

SECOND   COUNTY  SEAT 

Atlas  was  the  second  county  seat  and  thereat  was  erected  a  Court 
House  of  framework,  but  of  no  architectural  pretensions,  which  never  was 
finished  as  a  Court  House,  being  used  as  such  in  an  incomplete  state. 
There  was  also  a  small  but  solid  log  jail,  a  terror  to  evildoers,  but  not 
often  tenanted. 

FIRST  SETTLERS    OF   ATLAS 

It  was  settled  by  New  Englanders  in  1821.  In  the  summer  of  1823 
the  town  was  laid  out,  its  earliest  settlers  being  Leonard  Ross,  who  had 
been  a  captain  in  the  U.  S.  service  during  the  war  of  1812  with  England, 
nnd  his  brothers  William,  John,  Clarence,  Henry  J.,  the  latter  being  for 
fifteen  years  the  leading  physician  in  Pike,  and  extending  his  ride  to  other 
counties.  He  was  an  excellent  physician,  a  genial  friend  and  honest 
man;  he  died  in  1836,  leaving  no  children. 

The  late  Colonel  William  Ross  was  one  of  those  pioneers  of  Atlas. 
Those  Ross  brothers  were  all  married  men  and  had  most  estimable  and 


10  HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY 

refined  families.  Dexter  Wheelock  with  his  wife,  settled  at  Atlas  about 
the  time  of  the  Ross  family  arriving.  He  had  been  during  the  war  of 
1812  a  drummer,  and  was  a  very  active,  generous  man,  and  for  a  time  the 
hotel  keeper  and  had  a  family  and  other  grocery  store.  He  is  long  dead, 
his  wife  and  a  son  and  daughter  yet  survive;  and  no  more  estimable  man 
of  the  early  born  settlers  yet  lives  than  John  G.  Wheelock,  the  aforesaid 
son,  now  one  of  the  'Sny  Levee  Commissioners. 

There  was  another  conspicuous  character  among  those  early  settlers 
of  Atlas.  Benjamin  Barney,  who  was  a  man  of  great  physical  powers, 
of  strong  natural  sense,  benevolent,  patriotic,  not  learned  in  book  lore, 
but  wise  in  that  which  made  him  a  leader  in  trying  times;  he  was  long 
the  County  Blacksmith,  and  that  meant  the  only  one  in  fifty  miles;  sober, 
industrious,  always  at  his  post.  His  tales  of  early  adventure  are  mar- 
vellous, and  yet  undoubtedly  true. 

Colonel  Wm.  Ross  as  aid  to  General  Whitesides,  and  Ben  Barney, 
afterwards  Colonel  of  the  17th  Illinois  Militia,  both  took  part  in  the  Black 
Hawk  war  in  1832,  and  that  campaign  and  the  battle  of  Buena  Vista 
made  Zachary  Taylor  president. 

Colonel  Ross  died  within  a  short  period.  Colonel  Barney  yet  sur- 
vives in  a  vigorous  old  age. 

We  will  speak  further  of  the  Ross  brothers.  Leonard  was  Sheriff, 
and  William  was  until  sometime  after  Pittsfield  was  laid  out,  Clerk  of 
the  Circuit  Court,  Probate  Judge,  and  County  Court,  as  well  as  Postmaster 
at  Atlas,  for  a  time  the  only  post  office  in  the  present  part  of  Pike  county; 
there  was  thereafter  up  to  1833  the  post  office  at  Clio,  at  Charles  Strat- 
ton's,  and  the  post  office  at  Bay,  south  of  Pleasant  Hill. 

Colonel  Ross  was  prominent  as  a  representative  from  this  county 
in  the  Legislature  in  1836,  at  the  time  of  the  unfortunate,  illadvised  In 
ternal  Improvement  system,  which  fell  through,  entailing  a  debt  of  mil- 
lions of  dollars  on  the  young,  struggling  State,  and  yet  that  is  all  paid. 
He  was  afterwards  state  senator,  and  was  noted  for  his  shrewd  public 
spirit  and  for  many  donations.  He  was  not  the  originator  of  the  internal 
improvement  system;  the  Road  Law  of  1835.  so  called,  which  was  of 
value  to  Pike,  was  the  work  of  Colonel  Ross. 

At  Atlas,  prior  to  Pittsfield's  location,  was  a  cabinet  shop  of  Mr. 
Branson,  and  Stephen  R.  Watson,  yet  in  life  near  Barry,  was  the  tailor 
who  dressed  the  men  in  Sunday  best.  An  old  resident,  now  of  Pittsfield, 
who  is  alive  and  upwards  of  eighty  years  of  age,  James  Ross,  had  the  first 
turners  lathe  and  a  cabinet  shop;  he  was  also  a  constable  at  an  early 
day  and  was  in  the  BlackHawk  war.  It  was  better  than  a  farce  to  hear 
Ross  tell  his  yarns  in  his  pr.lmy  days;  he  was  the  Baron  Munchausen  then. 

Ebenezer  Franklin,  an  early  settler,  and  about  dating  with  the  Rosa 
family,  to  whom  was  born  the  first  son  in  Pike  county,  has  been  gathered 
to  his  fathers  many  years,  leaving  respected  sons  and  descendants. 

Robert  and  Joseph  Goodin  and  Fisher  Petty  were  amongst  the  noted 
men  of  Highland.  Petty  was  a  County  Commissioner  at  Pittsfield.  Mr. 
Murphy  was  the  first  County  Surveyor.  Joseph  Goodin  was  County  Sur- 
veyor thereafter,  a'  good  officer;  he  is  yet  living,  but  in  Missouri. 

Ephraim  Cannon,  Sheriff  afterwards  of  Pike,  was  an  early  and  res- 
pected citizen.  James  M.  Seeley  was  -for  twelve  years  noted  as  the  honest, 
easy  Sheriff.  It  was  his  duty  to  collect  revenue;  if  a  man  was  not  ready 
to  pay  his  tax.  Seeley  paid  it  and  trusted  him.  Seeley  had  a  numerous 
family,  of  whom  Dr.  E.  M.  Seeley,  who  was  a  surgeon  during  the  late  war, 


HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY  11 

was  one;  another,  'Dr.  David  Seeley,  was  an  early  settler  of  and  died  in 
Texas. 

Benjamin  D.  Brown,  now  of  Barry,  once  lived  at  Atlas.  He  came 
in  1834  from  the  East  and  was  a  first-class  millwright  and  fitted  up  the 
mills  at  Rockport,  those  were  erected  by  the  Rosses  and  others. 

All  the  settlers  above  named,  but  Brown,  ante-dated  Pittsfield,  as 
did  Colonel  N.  E.  Quinby,  who,  with  John  Jay  Ross,  were  resident  lawyers 
in  Pike  county  preceding  1833;  both  are  dead. 

The  business  of  the  county  prior  to  1833  was  all  carried  on  at  Atlas; 
there  were  two  general  stores.  Warburton  &  Co.  of  St.  Louis,  with  whom 
Col.  Ross  was  a  partner,  had  a  large  brick  store  and  did  an  extensive 
business,  all  on  credit  or  barter.  Mr.  Francis  Webster,  who  died  after 
residing  some  years  in  St.  Louis,  also  had  a  general  store;  with  him  his 
brother  Thomas  was  clerk  and  is  now  a  prominent  officer  in  an  insurance 
office  in  St.  Louis. 

Dexter  Wheelock  kept  a  tavern,  snug  quarters,  and  also  had  liquors 
for  sale  and  groceries  for  family  use.  The  old  brick  mansion  at  Atlas, 
erected  prior  to  1833  by  Colonel  Ross,  as  well  as  the  old  brick  mansion 
of  Leonard  Ross  and  the  brick  residence  of  Sheriff  Seeley,  are  yet  stand- 
ing. Edward  McCord,  who  married  Miss  Seeley,  resides  in  the  latter. 

PROMINENT   SETTLERS    IN    OTHER    PARTS    OF    PIKE 

Prior  to  1833  there  were  many  prominent  settlers,  very  useful  and  up- 
right. Amongst  these  were  George  W.  Hinman  and  Hawkins  Judd,  who 
were  County  Commissioners  with  Colonel  Ben.  Barney,  when  they  bought 
of  the  United  States  for  $200  the  quarter  section  of  land  upon  which 
Pittsfield  was  located.  Hinman  and  Judd  are  dead. 

Garrett  Van  Deusen,  an  eccentric,  Knickerbocker  Dutchman,  was  a 
justice  of  the  peace  in  an  early  day,  and  likely  one  of  the  earliest  settlers 
east  of  Pittsfield,  on  Blue  river,  and  was  the  originator  of  a  queer  device 
to  crack  corn,  operated  likely  as  Adam  ran  the  first  mill.  Van  Deusen 
used  the  stream  of  Blue  river  at  a  narrow  place,  and  by  catching  and  con- 
fining the  water  thereform  in  a  hollow  tree  or  trough,  open  at  the  end  up 
stream  and  closed  at  the  lower  end,  he  worked  a  swinging  pestle,  which 
was  suspended  over  a  mortar,  to  crack  Indian  corn.  The  process  was  to 
let  the  trough  fill  with  water  nearly  to  overflowing,  when  by  its  weight  it 
would  descend,  dashing  the  pestle  into  the  mortar  and  crushing  the  corn. 
The  pestle  being  adjusted  some  distance  from  the  end  of  the  trough,  up 
stream,  the  water  spilled  beyond  the  mortar  and  the  machine  adjusted 
itself  for  another  beat  at  the  corn. 

ATLAS 

In  the  vicinity  of  Atlas  Henry  Long,  from  Baltimore  City,  settled 
about  the  year  1827.  During  a  residence  of  many  years,  until  his  de- 
cease on  his  farm,  he  was  a  useful  citizen  and  upright  man.  He  reared  a 
second  numerous  family  of  intelligent  and  educated  children.  His  son, 
Jesse  Long,  has  been  a  Supervisor  of  Atlas  township  and  resides  on  the 
old  homestead  of  his  father. 

CHAMBERSBURG 

This  town  has  had  her  celebrities,  as  'Benj.  Metz,  once  a  worthy  mem- 
ber of  the  Illinois  Legislature;  Jack  Morris,  James  Johns,  the  whole  and 
numerous  race  of  Metz  junior,  and  also  the  abounding  family  of  Ham. 
This  family  cannot  realize  the  joke  of  Lord  Bacon  to  one  Hog,  who  claim- 


12  HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY 

ed  kin  to  his  Lordship;  the  Judge's  reply  was,  "You  are  not  bacon  until 
you  are  hung,"  and  he  then  sentenced  him  to  be  hung.  The  Hams  are 
too  honest  to  swing  so  high. 

TOWNSHIP  HISTORIES 

Part  of  the  plan  proposed  for  the  preservation  and  embodiment  of 
the  history  of  the  county  is  through  reports  from  the  respective  town- 
ships of  local  matters,  of  the  biographies  of  men  of  repute.  This  should 
cover  all  the  matters  and  individuals  not  embraced  in  the  general  sketch 
of  the  county  now  submitted. 

Pittsfield,  as  the  county  seat,  is  so  interwoven  with  the  county  at 
large  that  more  space  is  given  to  the  sketch  of  men  in  this  locality  than 
to  others. 

The  historian  now  announces  to  the  audience  and  the  public  that  if 
any  subjects  or  individuals  of  note  have  not  been  introduced,  it  is  not 
through  an  intention  to  slight  any  such,  but  has  been  owing  to  the  short 
space  of  time  allowed  to  work  up  this  interesting  field  of  labor,  covering 
a  space  of  fifty-five  years.  The  history  not  being  closed,  in  fact,  sug- 
gestions will  be  thankfully  received  as  to  any  additions  proper  to  be 
made;  if  communicated  in  writing,  action  will  be  taken  upon  them. 

GENERAL  TOPIC 

Pike  county  has  almost  been  the  mother  of  states  to  the  west  or 
Illinois.  Having  a  pioneer  population  of  an  enterprising  turn,  large  num- 
bers have  emigrated  together  to  Oregon,  Texas  and  California  and  other 
remote  points,  following  the  star  of  empire.  Many  estimable  farmers 
have  gone  further  east  in  Illinois  and  settled  in  the  prairie  counties  who 
once  lived  in  Pike. 

The  health  of  this  county  is  almost  invariably  good,  excepting  in  low- 
lands, where  some  malarious  disease  comes  on  at  times.  Long  levity 
exists  to  a  marked  degree,  and  children  fairly  swarm.  Prosperity  and 
fine  crops  are  the  general  results  of  industry. 

In  1833,  when  Pittsfield  came  into  being,  mails,  once,  then  thrice 
weekly,  were  wonders.  No  newspapers  existed  for  many  years;  elsewhere 
we  give  the  report  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  newspapers.  Church  buildings 
were  not  erected,  but  came  in  apace  with  population;  we  now  have  nearly 
all  known  religions  extant  in  the  United  States;  these  generally  have 
houses  of  worship,  some  of  them  of  fair  appearance.  The  Methodist 
Episcopal  has  the  highest  steeple.  We  do  not  quite  fill  Dean  Swift's  des 
cription:  "High  church,  low  steeple,  dirty  streets  and  proud  people." 

At  present  we  have  two  banks,  one  National,  under  the  acts  of  Con- 
gress, the  other  has  an  old  state  charter.  Griggsville  and  Barry  also 
have  each  a  bank. 

PITTSFIELD'S   EARLY    SETTLERS 

It  is  said  impartial  history  is  not  written  of  the  living  or  of  current 
events.  We  now  come  to  the  sketch  of  many  early  settlers  yet  in  life: 
we  do  not  speak  in  terms  of  eulogy  for  the  re  :son  that  they  may  hear  these 
remarks;  the  families  of  the  departed  have  heard  the  preceding,  and  we 
say  that  we  have  not  set  down  anything  in  malice,  and  have  not  spoken 
through  favor.  We  will  not  enumerate,  as  we  cannot  in  the  time  name 
all  the  marked  people  of  Pittsfield  and  the  vicinity,  but  take  those  who 
filled  a  large  space  for  many  years  in  public  estimation. 


HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY 


Mrs.  Nancy  M.  Heath,  who  came  in  the  first  years  of  Pittsfield,  is  a 
native  of  Ohio,  a  ward  in  childhood  of  Governor  McArthur  of  that  state; 
she  is  venerable  for  her  years,  feeble  in  health,  but  of  great  endurance. 
She  has  witnessed  many  of  the  trials  and  active  scenes  of  western  life; 
her  narrative  of  events,  as  told  by  her  in  person  at  an  "Old  Settlers" 
meeting,  was  very  interesting.  She  has  outlived  many  relatives  and 
friends.  Mrs.  Heath  and  daughter,  afterwards  Mrs.  A.  V.  Wills,  kept  one 
of  the  earliest  schools  in  the  county,  and  likely  the  first  in  Pittsfield. 

Thomas  Worthington,  M.  D.,  yet  in  life,  was  the  earliest  resident 
physician  of  Pittsfield;  he  came  in  1833.  For  a  long  time  he  was  not 
outranked  by  any  in  his  profession  here,  and  while  his  health  permitted 
had  a  lucrative  practice  and  was  successful  and  popular.  He  was  for  one 
term  a  State  Senator  from  Pike. 

Merrill  E.  Rattan,  the  first  postmaster  of  Pittsfield,  long  since  dead, 
was  also  Probate  Judge  in  Pike;  he  kept  a  hotel  on  the  same  lot  on  which 
the  "Oregon  House"  stands. 

William  Watson,  once  a  Probate  Judge,  and  his  wife,  are  yet  with 
us,  advanced  in  years.  Mrs.  Watson,  long  a  sufferer,  but  once  a  model 
housekeeper  in  the  Mansion  House,  and  a  sincere  friend.  Mr.  Watson  is 
daily  seen,  six  days  in  the  week,  with  chums  enjoying  checkers  in  his  old 
home,  the  "Mansion  House  Hotel."  As  a  business  man  he  was  ever  fore- 
most, and  by  his  industry,  economy  and  honesty,  he  accumulated  a  hand- 
some property. 

Robert  R.  Greene,  who,  with  his  cousin,  Austin  Barber,  opened  and 
carried  on  the  evrliest  large  store  in  Pittsfield,  yet  survives;  his  health 
long  troubled  him.  He  was  an  industrious,  superior  business  man.  Mrs. 
Greene  was  one  of  the  earliest  and  highly  respected  school  teachers. 

Austin  Barber,  in  his  day  the  merriest  of  the  gay,  honest  as  the  day 
is  long,  was  for  a  period  County  Clerk.  He  left  well  written  records,  in 
all  particulars  clean. 

Henry  T.  Mudd,  honored  of  late  often  in  Missouri,  was  a  boy  here. 
He  is  a  first-class  business  man  and  early  excelled  in  energy.  He  was 
when  a  boy  deputy  in  the  post  office  and  afterwards  was  County  Clerk  of 
Pike. 

THE   POST   OFFICE   AT   PITTSFIELD 

This,  from  its  central  position  and  as  a  distributing  office,  has  been 
a  marked  office.  Many  individuals  have  filled  the  position  of  Postmaster. 
Of  Rattan  and  Crane  we  have  spoken,  and  of  Colonel  D.  B.  Bush.  Mr. 
Porter  Bennett  and  his  father,  Lucius  Bennett,  the  latter  as  acting  post- 
master for  many  terms  and  at  present.  Mrs.  Louisia  Gilmer  was  appoint- 
ed by  President  Grant  and  filled  the  office  very  acceptably  until  her  death. 
Miss  Lizzie  Gilmer,  daughter  of  her  predecessor  and  of  the  late  gallant 
Col.  D.  Harvey  Gilmer,  is  now  the  incunrbent  of  this  office;  the  duties  of 
the  office  are  faithfully  discharged. 

Although  a  delicate  matter  for  this  historian  to  write  as  to  relatives, 
yet  it  would  be  far  from  complete  unless  record  wasi  made  as  to  worthy 
relatives. 

John  U.  Grimshaw  settled  near  Pittsfield  in- 1834  and  afterwards 
moved  to  town  and  for  many  years  was  an  active  merchant  exemplary  in 
his  life  and  business,  a  true  friend,  a  man  of  great  intelligence,  he  has 
long  departed  to  the  better  land.  He  was  a  cousin  of  this  writer. 

Jackson  Grimshaw,  resident  of  Pittsfield  for  14  years,  then  of  Quincy, 
has  gone  as  all  must  go  to  the  land  beyond  the  grave.  He  was  popular 


14  HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY 

and  much  beloved  and  was  a  leading  member  of  the  Bar  ,of  the  State;  he 
died  in  Quincy  in  December,  1885.  He  was  a  beloved  younger  brother  of 
the  writer. 

This  county  has  sent  many  sons  and  daughters  to  adorn  society  in  the 
larger  cities  ami  to  carry  the  beauty  and  order  of  civilized  life  to  distant 
states  and '  territories.  We  cannot  particularize  all  who  have  gone  out 
from  us.  St.  Louis  has  energetic  business  men  and  physicians  who  owe 
to  Pike  county  their  earliest  training. 

Dr.  John  Hodgen,  an  eminent  surgeon  of  St.  Louis  now,  was  raised 
in  Pike  county  and  mostly  about  Pittsfield. 

Who  among  the  early  settlers  but  remembers  that  quiet,  unobtrusive 
man,  Jacob  Hodgen,  father  of  Dr.  John  Hodgen,  and  the  benevolent  mem- 
ber and  leader  in  his,  the  Christian  Church. 

Amongst  our  sons  departed  to  other  fields  of  glory  were  Messrs.  O. 
M.  Hatch  and  Alexander  Starne,  both  residents  of  Griggsville,  then  of 
Pittsfield,  each  ran  about  the  same  career  in  Pike,  (both  were  Clerk  of  the 
Circuit  Court  and  members  of  the  Legislature  from  Pike  county,  both 
have  held  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State  of  Illinois,  and  are  now  resi- 
dents of  Springfield  in  prosperous  circumstances.  Mr.  Starne  recently  has 
been  a  State  Senator  from  his  district.  They  are  yet  in  the  vigor  of  man- 
hood. 

At  Pleasant  Vale,  earlier  than  Pittsfield,  were  several  reputable 
families.  Amos,  Joseph  and  Pearly  Jackson. 

Major  James  Tolbert,  an  old  Virginian,  he  was  an  officer  in  the  17th 
Illinois  Militia  at  an  early  day.  He  left  a  numerous  respected  family, 
and  was  himself  a  substantial  farmer  and  upright  man. 

Horace  Horton,  yet  in  life,  was  an  old  sea  captain,  a  very  "Jolly  tar" 
from  the  state  of  Connecticut,  an  energetic  man.  He  settled  in  1832 
above  Rockport  and  still  resides  there. 

Lyman  Scott,  an  early  settler,  married  a  daughter  of  Leonard  Ross. 
He  was  for  a  time  one  of  the  owners  of  a  former  mill  at  Rockport,  he  was 
a  pushing  businessman  and  removed  early  to  Kansas  and  is  dead. 

The  Meredith  and  Neely  settlements  near  the  Illinois  river,  now 
Detroit  township,  were  composed  of  ?everal  southern  families,  old  settlers, 
prior  to  the  location  of  Pittsfield. 

John  Neely  was  an  early  County  Commissioner,  but  removed  to 
Texas  and  is  dead. 

John  Lyster.  at  t'mes  a  Justice  of  the  Peace,  died  recently  in  that 
settlement,  of  which  he  was  an  early  and  respected  citizen  and  was  often 
on  the  Grand  Jury. 

David  Dutton,  of  the  vicinity  of  Pleasant  Vale,  long  deceased,  was  a 
very  early  and  active  farmer  and  became  a  wealthy  mm,  a  warm  friend, 
peculiar  in  his  ways  so  is  to  be  eccentric. 

At  Bayville,  Dr.  Hezekiah  Dodge,  an  early  practitioner  of  medicine, 
was  from  Virginia.  He  was  a  good  study  for  a  painter;  he  was,  as  one 
described  John  Randolph,  'long,  lean  and  lank,  and  moved  upon  a  spindle 
shank.'  He  was  respectably  connected,  and  left  numerous  descendants 
who  are  highly  esteemed.  A  son-in-law  of  his,  Mr.  Ferguson,  was  once 
County  Surveyor  of  Pike  and  a  good  citizen  and  officer. 

The  brothers  Belus  and  Egbert  Jones  were  old  settlers.  Belus  was 
never  a  lawyer,  but  a  pettifogger,  he  hung  on  to  Lord  Coke  (J.  W.  Whit- 
ney) like  a  bobtail  to  n  kite.  At  court  time  is  was  said;  "No  court  till 
Coke  and  Belus  come*" 


HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY  15 

EARLY    SETTLERS    IN    OTHER    PARTS    OF    PIKE 

Fearful  that  township  histories  may  not  be  forthcoming,  we  sketch 
hastily  the  following,  as  the  history  is  partial  and  incomplete  unless  mem- 
orial is  preserved  of  the  other  meritorious  persons  whose  names  follow. 

GRIGGSVILLE 

About  this  town  were  many  highly  respected  and  useful  men,  not  so 
early  settlers  as  the  Atlas  men  already  named. 

George  W.  Johnson  was  the  founder  of  Griggsville. 

Nathan  W.  Jones,  who  is  yet  living,  laid  out  part  of  Griggsville.  He 
is  a  well-preserved,  energetic  business  man,  the  father  of  prominent  sons, 
woll-known  to  the  county. 

There  were  numerous  Bradburys,  highly  respected.  Abel  Shelly, 
lately  deceased,  an  estinlable  citizen.  The  Harringtons,  brothers,  Martin 
yet  in  life,  a  worthy  man,  and  the  venerable,  pious  Charles  Harrington, 
who  was  once  an  efficient,  upright  Probate  Judge  of  the  county,  and  was 
a  minister  in  the  Baptist  Church. 

Boone  Scholl,  the  founder  of  Perry,  \vhich  was  laid  out  first  by  the 
name  of  Booneville  was  a  very  worthy  man. 

In  the  Northwest  part  of  Pike  there  was  an  early  settlement  of  very 
reputable  citizens. 

Alfred  Grubb,  once  called  "the  little  bay  horse"  for  his  sprightliness, 
was  a  good  Sheriff  and  County  Judge.  Thomas  Orr,  noted  as  a  grand 
juror  for  long  years,  was  respected  by  all.  Thomas  Hull,  a  good  farmer 
and  remarkable  for  his  active  piety;  these  all  leave  numerous  descendants 
of  great  respectability. 

The  Blairs,  father  and  several  sons,  all  good  men,  were  in  the 
vicinity  of  Barry  before  Pittsfield  was  laid  out.  William,  son  of  the 
senior,  was  a  marked  member  of  the  Illinois  Legislature  and  an  upright 
and  useful  man.  He  is  long  dead.  Montgomery  Blair,  once  a  farmer,  of 
later  yeirs  a  fair-dealing  merchant  in  Barry,  was  a  member  of  the  Con- 
stitutional Convention  of  1874.  He  lives,  beloved  by  his  family  and 
friends.  Harvey  Blair  is  yet  alive  and  an  estimable  farmer. 

It  is  impossible  in  this  sketch  to  notice  all  the  earlier  settlers.  Some 
have  emjgrated.  others  have  died.  At  court  time  at  an  early  day  in  Pitts- 
field  Samuel  Gibson,  Henry  Kent,  George  Gibson.  Samuel  G.  Sitton, 
Esquire  Hayden,  the  Tucker  Brothers  would  be  seen,  and  William  John- 
son. James  Johnson,  and  John  and  Jacob  Heavner,  the  latter,  although 
dressed  in  the  homeliest  garb,  with  his  long  rifle  and  his  nosom  friend, 
James  Johnson,  was  a  conspicuous  man.  Both  of  these  men  were  pos- 
sessed of  great  nerve  and  endurance  and  made  great  havoc  amongst  the 
deer:  small  varmints  they  despised. 

Simuel  G.  Sitton  survives  In  his  75th  year,  and  on  June  29th,  1876, 
he  cut  on  his  own  farm  an  acre  of  wheat  with  a  sickle  and  bound  it  up  on 
that  dav  and  was  in  Pittsfield  the  next  day  as  spry  as  usual.  Harvey 
Dunn  of  Chambersburg.  was  an  old  settler  and  in  1874  was  a  member  of 
tho  Constitutional  Convention  of  Illinois.  He  was  a  very  unassuming  but 
intelligent,  honest  man  and  is  long  dead. 

Stephen  R.  Gray,  venerable  and  respected  in  years,  yet  lives.  He 
was  sheriff  about  1851;  he  is  an  early  settler  and  resided  at  or  near 
Rarry  and  was  at  one  time  postmaster  thereat;  for  many  years  his  home 
has  been  at  Pittsfield. 


16  HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY 

Hamilton  Wills  is  yet  as  happy  as  ever,  jolly  in  person,  comfortable 
in  business,  an  old  settler  in  Pittsfleld,  as  a  Justice  of  the  Peace  in  former 
years,  useful  and  respected,  yet  alive  to  make  a  saddle  and  get  up  a  fine 
harness. 

Richard  Kerr  of  Pleasant  Hill  township,  was  an  old  farmer,  a  lead- 
ing whig,  and  represented  Pike  county  in  the  Legislature  one  term.  He 
died  many  years  since,  esteemed  by  all,  leaving  many  relatives  in  Pike. 

Bonaparte  Greathouse  of  Milton,  was  a  County  Commissioner  at  an 
early  day,  of  great  worth,  a  good  farmer,  he  is  long  dead  and  left  surviv- 
ing him  a  numerous  family;  several  of  his  sons  are  practitioners  of  law. 

Samuel  L.  Crane,  now  venerable  in  years,  was  a  very  early  settler  of 
Morgan  county,  Illinois,  and  has  filled  acceptably  with  perfect  integrity 
the  office  of  postmaster  at  Pittsfield;  he  is  now  in  private  life.  He  is  the 
father  of  that  useful  son  resident  at  Pittsfield,  James  H.  Crane,  who  has 
been  Circuit  Clerk  of  Pike  county  and  yet  lives  h'ere  and  is  a  deputy  clerk 
in  the  office  of  George  W.  Jones,  our  present  efficient  and  popular  Circuit 
Clerk. 

William  B.  Grimes  yet  lives  in  Pittsfield.  He  was  an  able  and  honest 
County  Clerk  for  one  term,  succeeding  William  Steers,  who  was  a  good 
and  worthy  officer  and  his  successor  is  Jonathan  L.  Frye,  who  was  a  son 
of  an  honest  miller,  Jonathan  Frye.  J.  L.  is  now  the  incumbent  of  the 
County  Clerk's  office. 

James  McWilliams,  venerable  for  his  years,  influential  in  his  town  of 
Griggsville,  has  been  a  representative  of  the  county  in  the  Legislature 
and  often  a  Supervisor  of  Griggsville  township.  He  is  an  early  settler  of 
Griggsville. 

Daniel  D.  Hicks,  now  the  esteemed  cashier  of  the  First  National 
Bank,  is  an  old  resident  of  Pittsfield  and  has  filled  honorably  several 
offices.  He  was  once  Sheriff  of  the  county.  During  his  term  of  office  a 
riot  took  place  on  an  election  day  in  Pittsfield,  when  many  wild  boys  who 
had  been  good  soldiers  in  the  late  Mexican  war  took  an  active  part  in 
the  riot,  calling  out  "we  are  some  pumpkins."  By  aid  of  a  posse  of  the 
people,  called  by  Hicks,  the  riot  was  put  down. 

FREE   FRANK 

Frank  McWorter,  and  his  wife  Lucy,  with  three  children,  emigrated 
from  Kentucky  and  settled  in  Hadley  township  in  the  spring  of  1831;  he 
had  wintered  in  Greene  county,  Illinois,  in  1830.  That  family  were  the 
first  settlers  in  Hadley  township,  and  none  others  arrived  for  two  years. 

Frank  McWorter  laid  out  the  town  of  New  Philadelphia. 

Frank  bought  his  own  freedom  and  that  of  his  wife  and  many  of  his 
children,  and  left  provision  in  his  will  to  buy  grandchildren,  which  was 
carried  out  by  his  son,  Solomon  McWorter. 

Frank  died  about  the  year  1857,  at  77  years  of  age.  Lucy,  his  wife, 
died  in  her  99th  year  in  1871.  Fr..nk  was  born  in  South  Carolina,  Lucy 
in  Virginia.  Both  these  old  people  were  members  of  the  Baptist  Church 
and  people  of  exemplary  lives.  By  industry  and  economy  they  left  a 
valuable  farm  to  their  heirs.  A  large  and  respectable  settlement  of  their 
descendants  now  exists  around  the  old  home. 

This  county  has  had  many  eminent  physicians,  prominent  amongst 
whom  at  an  early  day  were  Doctors  Hatch,  senior,  of  Griggsville,  long 
deceased,  and  his  son,  S.  C.  Hatch,  M.  D.,  now  of  Barry,  yet  practicing: 
he  was  a  surgeon  during  the  rebellion,  in  the  Union  army. 


HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY  17 

Dr.  Higgins,  also  of  Griggsville,  once  Superintendent  of  the  State 
Insane  Institution,  and  has  been  a  useful  member  of  the  Legislature  of 
Illinois,  is  yet  in  successful  practice  as  M.  D. 

John  Hay,  the  author  of  "Pike  County  Ballads,"  Secretary  since  to 
the  Spanish  Mission,  and  private  secretary  to  Lincoln,  now  on  the  staff  of 
the  New  York  Tribune,  was  a  boy  at  Pittsfield,  of  great  hilarity,  but  not 
wicked  as  his  ballads  might  imply. 

CONGRESSMAN 

Pike  county  and  the  district  is  now  represented  by  one  of  her  own 
sons,  for  the  first  time,  in  Congress,  by  Scott  Wike,  well-known  at  the 
Pike  county  bar,  and  yet  himself  young  in  years  and  a  -Bachelor.  We 
hope  he  will  not  die,  as  President  Buchanan,  in  the  same  state  of  life. 

COUNTY  OFFICERS 

Henry  R.  Ramsay,  who  died  in  November,  1873,  at  his  farm  in  Atlas 
township,  was  an  early  settler,  a  man  of  great  probity  and  intelligence. 
He  was  once  County  Commissioner  of  Pike  county,  and  an  active  business 
man;  he  was  much  beloved. 

Parvin  Paullin,  a  native  of  New  Jersey,  came  in  mature  years  to 
Pike,  served  one  term  as  a  Representative  in  the  Illinois  Legislature  from 
Pike,  and  was  Probate  Judge  of  the  county.  He  discharged  his  duty  with 
honor  and  efficiency;  he  died  many  years  since. 

Reuben  W.  Scanland,  a  member  of  the  bar,  but  more  noted  as  Squire, 
long  a  leading  Justice  of  the  Peace,  popular  and  when  in  health  and  so 
inclined  a  very  useful  officer.  He  is  dead  several  years. 

Joshua  Woosley  of  Barry  township,  has  been  a  notea  man  and  has 
served  one  term  with  great  usefulness  and  with  perfect  integrity  as 
Sheriff.  He  is  an  old  settler  and  is  yet  an  active  man. 

Captain  Elisha  Hurt  was  Sheriff  of  Pike  county,  and  filled  the  office 
judiciously  and  honorably.  He  served  during  the  war  of  the  rebellion  in 
the  Union  army  with  distinction. 

John  McTucker,  last  of  Barry,'  once  of  Hadley  township,  was  on  the 
Board  of  Supervisors  from  Hadley,  and  often  on  the  committees  of  the 
Agricultural  Society  of  Pike,  a  first-class  farmer,  an  upright  and  intelli- 
gent man,  of  great  benevolence  and  very  popular.  He  lost  his  life  by  an 
accident  in  endeavoring  to  get  upon  a  railroad  car  when  nearing  his  home 
after  a  trip  to  California,  taken  on  behalf  of  his  brother,  resident  there. 
He  left  numerous  and  respected  family  and  a  valuable  estate. 

THE    MILITARY   RECORD 
"In  records  that  defy  the  tooth  of  time." 

Pike  county  had  brave  sons  in  various  regiments.  We  cannot  enum- 
erate all  or  any  number  of  them.  We  refer  to  the  muster  rolls  of  regi- 
ments. We  specify  regiments  in  which  we  know  that  Pike  had  brave 
men  and  officers. 

Many  soldiers  of  the  American  Revolution  and  the  War  of  1812  have 
resided  in  Pike. 

This  county  early  in  the  rebellion  furnished  large  numbers  of  men 
and  officers  to  the  early  regiments,  as  to  the  8th  Illinois,  which  was  at 
Shiloh,  Donaldson  and  other  battles  and  was  distinguished;  one  of  its 
heroes,  Tip  Winans,  yet  lives,  although  he  was  terribly  wounded  and  is 
lame  for  life. 


18  HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY 

The  16th  Illinois,  in  which  Major  Sam  Hayes  and  Captain  Geo.  Stew- 
art were  officers,  had  a  company  or  more  from  Pike.  Other  infantry 
regiments  had  many  individuals  who  were  valiant  soldiers  from  Pike,  as 
the  28th  and  33d  infantry. 

The  Lyon  Regiment,  of  Missouri,  enlisted  many  volunteers  from 
Pike  who  went  through  the  heavy  fights  of  the  west  and  south  and  many 
fell  in  action.  Major  Benjamin  Sellon  of  that  regiment,  who  was  also  in 
other  command,  survives  after  being  severely  wounded  and  has  not  yet 
recovered  fully  therefrom. 

The  2nd  Illinois  Cavalry,  noted  in  the  field  for  bravery,  raised  a 
company  or  more  from  Pike.  Of  its  officers,  after  its  first  organization, 
several  Pike  county  men  rose  to  high  distinction  and  high  command. 
Colonel  John  J.  Mudd  was  advanced  from  that  office  to  chief  of  cavalry 
in  the  Banks  expedition  to  Red  River,  and  fell  bravely  endeavoring  to  re- 
pulse an  attack  on  a  gunboat  on  which  he  was  traveling. 

Colonel  Daniel  B.  Bush,  Jr.,  was  afterwards  in  command  of  that 
regiment  and  served  with  distinction.  He  is  now  in  California. 

The  99th  Illinois  Infantry  was  all  enlisted  in  Pike  county  and  served 
from  1862  until  the  end  of  the  war.  Colonel  George  W.  K.  Bailey  was 
the  first  Colonel,  being  wounded  severely  at  Vicksburg,  the  command  fell 
on  the  Lieutenant  Colonel,  Asa  C.  Matthews,  who  distinguished  himseli 
therein  and  at  the  latter  part  of  the  war  was  sent  on  a  commission  against 
Indians  who  had  been  active  in  the  war  of  rebellion. 

The  101st  Illinois,  under  Governor  Wood,  had  many  men  from  Pike. 

Almost  every  leading  family  of  Pike  county  was  represented  in  the 
regiment  which  were  in  the  field,  and  it  is  impossible  at  this  time  to  make 
up  a  Roll  of  Honor.  If  made  it  would  redound  to  the  glory  of  the  brave 
boys  in  blue  from  old  Pike. 

Reuben  B.  Hatch,  formerly  a  resident  of  Griggsville,  a  native  of  New 
Hampshire,  more  recently  before  his  death,  of  Pittsfield,  Pike  county, 
Illinois,  was  appointed  Quartermaster  of  Union  troops  in  1862,  and  did 
an  immense  deal  of  vigorous  work  in  his  department  to  forward  the 
Union  troops  from  Cairo  to  the  field.  Under  General  Grant  he  was  pres- 
ent at  the  battle  field  of  Belmont.  He  was  with  the  department  as  Quar- 
termaster at  the  surrender  of  Vicksburg,  and  was  during  hts  service  a 
most  energetic  officer,  ranking  as  Colonel,  and  being  the  ranking  Quarter- 
master of  the  army  with  Grant  in  the  Mississippi  Valley.  He  is  buried  at 
Griggsville,  Illinois,  and  was  interred  with  Masonic  Honors. 

Captain  Benj.  Matthews  of  Perry,  is  an  old  settler  and  a  man  of 
energy  and  great  respectability.  Although  past  the  age  when  military 
duty  could  be  exacted,  he  entered  at  the  organization  of  the  99th  Illinois 
and  went  to  the  field,  serving  with  credit. 

Captain  George  T.  Edwards,  the  well-known  host  of  the  Griggsville 
and  now  Pittsfield  House,  was  also  a  Captain  in  the  99th  Illinois,  and 
proved  a  stirring,  brave  officer,  as  he  had  been  a  superior  Sheriff  in  the 
county. 

"The  paths  of  glory  lead  but  to  the  grave." 

Colonel  Daniel  H.  Gilmer,  a  member  of  the  bar,  of  great  popularity. 
Master  in  Chancery  of  the  Circuit  Court  of  Pike  county,  and  In  successful 
practice  of  his  profession,  impelled  by  his  patriotism,  entered  an  Illinois 
regiment.  His  promotion  was  rapid  and  he  soon  was  Colonel.  He  follow- 


HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY  19 

ed  the  fluctuating  fortunes  of  the  war,  and  bravely  leading  his  regiment 
fell  in  the  Union  army  at  the  bloody  battle  of  Stone  river.  His  body, 
after  tedious  search,  was  found  and  was  buried  with  distinguised  honor 
in  the  cemetery  south  of  Pittsfield.  Many  mourned  for  the  gallant  "Dick." 

Major  Samuel  Hayes,  once  a  very  active  lawyer,  and  a  partner  of 
Hon.  C.  L.  Higbee  before  he  became  Judge,  was  an  exceedingly  jovial 
man,  popular  amongst  the  young.  He  was  truly  brave.  When  a  mere 
youth  he  had  been  with  the  army  of  the  United  States  in  Mexico  and  went 
through  the  bloody  fields.  He  entered  the  volunteer  service  in  the  16th 
Illinois  during  the  rebellion  as  Captain.  He  was  immediately  elected  a 
Major  of  that  regiment,  went  to  the  field,  and  after  service  in  Missouri 
and  the  South,  having  always  been  a  vigilant,  brave  officer,  he  died  of  dis- 
ease engendered  in  the  service  of  his  country  and  is  buried  in  the  Pitts- 
field  Cemetery,  west  of  town. 

Edward  G.  Bush,  a  son  of  Colonel  Daniel  B.,  Senior,  is  now  a  Major 
in  the  Regular  Army  of  the  United  States.  He  has  seen  mucn  service  and 
has  been  promoted  for  gallantry;  he  is  a  good  scholar  and  brave  officer. 
He  was  the  only  cadet  sent  from  Pike  county  to  the  West  Point  U.  S. 
Military  Academy,  at  which  he  was  for  a  time  Professor  of  Spanish,  and 
graduated  therefrom  with  honor  and  has  continued  in  the  United  States 
Army.  He  is  now  with  his  regiment  in  Texas. 

Dorus  E.  Bates,  son  of  Dorus  Bates,  Esq.,  of  Pittsfield,  an  early 
Justice  of  the  Peace,  was  a  Lieutenant  in  Sherman's  regiment  of  United 
States  Regulars,  and  was  wounded  in  the  siege  of  Vicksburg,  under  Grant. 
He  was  shot  down  at  the  siege  and  lost  his  arm  from  the  wound  received. 
He  is  now  a  worthy  pensioner,  and  was  in  action  an  intrepid  soldier  and 
from  boyhood  has  had  many  escapes  from  loss  of  life.  He  seemed  to  have 
a  charmed  life. 

Jonathan  Winans,  Jr.,  was  a  private  in  the  8th  Illinois  and  was  with 
his  regiment  under  Oglesby  in  many  deadly  battles.  He  was  wounded  al- 
most unto  death  at;  he  was  crippled  for  life,  .ind  it  is  a  miracle  that  he 
now  survives.  He  is  a  pensioner,  and  truly  deserves  the  money  received. 

THE  SNY   CARTE   LEVEE 

Upon  the  immediate  lands  on  the  Mississippi  bottom  has  been  con- 
structed at  a  cost  of  $650,000,  an  earth  embankment,  or  levee,  continuous 
throughout  the  length  of  the  west  side  of  said  county  of  Pike.  It  begins 
at  a  sand  ridge  on  the  river  Mississippi  in  Adams  county,  and  meandering 
along  said  river  through  Pike,  passes  into  Calhoun  county,  to  the  inter- 
section of  Hamburg  Bay  with  said  river.  It  is  about  fifty-two  miles  in 
length. 

This  structure  was  made,  under  general  legislation  of  Illinois,  by 
Commissioners  William  Dustin,  John  G.  Wheelock  and  George  W.  Jones, 
appointed  by  the  County  Court  of  Pike  county  in  1872.  Dustin's  place, 
after  his  death,  was  filled  by  Benjamin  F.  Westlake. 

This  levee  was  carried  through,  after  being  underway  over  two 
years,  by  completion  in  the  spring  of  1875.  It  withstood  a  flood  from  the 
river  and  also  very  high  water  from  the  inland  creeks  in  that  year,  but  in 
April,  1876,  owing  to  very  rapid  rises  in  the  Mississippi  and  exceedingly 
high  winds  prevailing  for  several  days,  the  levee  was  broken  from  the 
river  side,  the  water  pouring  in  destroying  large  and  valuable  crops  of 
growing  wheat  and  floating  off  fences,  drowning  out  inhabitants.  No  lives 
were  lost,  but  spring  planting  was  retarded.  Stock  had  to  be  withdrawn. 

The  land-owners  hnve  caused  contracts  to  be  let  to  repair  the  three 


20  HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY 

breeches  in  the  levee,  which  are  rapidly  proceeding,  with  the  prospect  of 
corn  crops  being  raised,  planted  in  June,   1876. 

RAILROADS 

The  county  has  paid,  or  contributed  in  bonds,  $250,000  towards 
building  the  Hannibal  &  Naples  Railroad,  about  38  miles  long,  crossing 
the  county  from  east  to  west,  and  the  branch  road,  the  Louisiana  &  Pike 
County  Road,  from  the  aforesaid  road  at  Maysville  to  the  corporation  of 
Pittsfleld  on  the  north  line,  about  six  miles.  The  Townships  of  Pittsfield 
and  Newhurg  paid  in  bonds  about  $31,000  to  this  branch  road,  and 
$100,000  was  paid  thereon  out  of  the  first  named  subscription. 

Several  passenger  and  freight  trains  pass  daily  on  these  roads.  By 
these  roads  daily  connection  may  be  had  to  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific,  the 
entire  trip  in  eight  or  ten  days  across  the  continent. 

The  Chicago  &  Alton  Railway  has  a  branch  road  from  its  Jackson- 
ville branch  to  Louisiana,  Missouri,  traversing  the  southern  tier  of  town- 
ships of  Pike.  This  branch  crosses  the  Illinois  river  by  a  bridge,  with  a 
draw  to  pass  steamers,  the  bridge  and  road  being  in  Pearl  township  at 
the  Illinois.  This  road  crosses  on  a  magnificent  bridge  the  Mississippi 
river  to  Louisiana,  Missouri. 

The  Toledo,  Wabash  &  Western  operates  the  aforesaid  Hannibal  & 
Naples  Road  and  the  six  mile  branch  to  Pittsfield. 

The  Toledo,  Wa'bash  &  Western  aforesaid  operates  a  road  to  Quincy 
which  just  crosses  the  northeast  corner  of  Pike  county  on  a  bridge  across 
the  Illinois  river. 

This  road  uses  a  bridge  across  the  Mississippi  river  at  Hannibal, 
which  is  a  rail  and  wagon  road  bridge. 

The  Quincy,  Alton  &  St.  Louis  Railroad  is  constructed  and  operated 
from  Quincy  to  Hannibal,  and  also  to  Louisiana.  These  pass  through 
townships  in  s;id  Levee  District  in  Pike  county. 

These  road;?  all  have  fine  steam  engines,  elegant  passenger  coaches 
and  freight  cars  passing  daily. 

MAIL   FACILITIES   NOW   AND   THEN 

In  1833,  and  for  many  years,  one  weekly  mail  entered  the  county 
from  the  southeast,  coming  from  St.  Louis  and  going  to  Galena  and  inter- 
mediate offices  (and  those  scarce),  carried  by  change  of  horses,  and  by 
many  contractors,  in  leather  bags  across  the  horse. 

Some  years  after  Pittsfield  was  laid  out  a  tri-weekly  horseback  mail 
was  carried  from  Jacksonville  and  other  points  east,  then  a  tri-weekly 
mail  coach  to  Pittsfield,  for  many  years  ran  daily,  with  a  delivery  of  mails 
from  many  points;  in  about  two  and  a  half  days  from  New  York  and  five 
from  California  to  Pittsfield.  Postage  across  the  continent  three  cents 
for  ordinary  letters  and  regulated  by  weight.  Mails  now  are  carried  by 
railroad  trains  to  Pittsfield  and  distributed  to  parts  of  Pike  daily  and 
portions  two  or  three  times  weekly.  At  all  points  a  daily  mail  can  be 
reached  'by  a  few  miles  travel. 

TELEGRAPH   LINES 

These  have  offices  in  all  the  railroad  towns  of  Pike  and  hourly  dis- 
patches are  sent. 

EXPRESS  LINES  AND  OFFICES 

These  are  in  many  of  the  towns,  and  daily  deliver  packages  of  v.tluo 
and  general  articles. 


HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY  21 

ELECTIONS  AT  AN  EARLY   DAY 

When  Pike  was  as  defined  in  1821,  some  exciting  elections  came  off 
as  well  as  in  later  years.  The  wars  of  the  roses  were  almost  fought  over. 
Towns  and  voters  were  scarce  as  at  old  Sarum  in  England,  but  votes 
counted;  so  when  the  Ross  family  and  the  Atlas  party  were  candidates 
there  was  a  lively  time  electioneering  from  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois  river 
all  the  way  to  Galena,  in  the  present  county  of  Jo  Daviess,  that  being  as 
lively  a  place  and  as  populous  as  any  in  the  State,  was  a  precinct  of  Pike 
county.  Think  of  sending  to  rally  voters  300  miles  and  then  to  send 
again  and  almost  fight  to  get  returns  of  elections!  Such  were  the  trials 
of  the  candidates  in  an  early  day.  How  much  better  now.  If  an  office- 
holder he  may  have  been  in  the  whiskey  ring  and  have  a  fine  to  pay  and 
to  go  to  jail. 

Fancy  poll  books  were  made  in  those  earlier  days,  with  fictitious 
names  thereon,  to  beat  the  Ross  party. 

THE   LAWYERS  OF   PIKE 

The  living  members  of  the  Pike  county  bar  number  men  of  promi- 
nence in  the  forum  and  in  the  halls  of  legislation. 

C.  L.  Higbee  is  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  the  Circuit  Judges. 

Daniel  Brown  Bush,  the  senior  in  years,  was  a  native  of  and  from 
the  State  of  Massachusetts  and  was  born  in  1790.  He  was  a  member  of 
the  Massachusetts  legislature  and  followed  his  profession  in  that  State. 
He  came  to  Pittsfield  in  1834.  He  has  filled  many  lucrative  public  offices, 
having  been  School  Commissioner  and  County,  or  Probate  Judge,  Post- 
master of  Pittsfield,  Justice  of  the  Peace,  and  in  all  offices  and  in  his  pro- 
fession has  been  a  m  ;.n  of  spotless  reputation. 

W.  R.  Archer  is  an  honored  and  useful  State  Senator  and  has  twice 
been  a  member  of  Constitutional  Conventions  of  Illinois. 

Colonel  A.  C.  Matthews,  at  the  bar,  on  the  stump  and  in  the  tented 
field,  as  well  as  in  the  office  of  United  States  Revenue  Collector,  has  dis- 
tinguished himself. 

Zachariah  N.  Garbutt,   the  original  editor  of  the  Free  Press,  of  this 
county,  was  a  member  of  the  bar  and  for  a  time  Master  in   Chancery  of 
the  county;    he  was  a  very  merry  soul.     In  the  Mormon  War  he  earned 
laurels   by   piling   big  sweet   potatoes   for  the   troops     of     Anti-Mormons. 
Earnest  and  somewhat  original  in  his  opinions,   very  independent  in  the 
expression   of  his  thoughts,  he  was  an   upright  man   and  something  of  a 
genius.     He  died  before  he  had  reached  the  meridian  of  life. 
"Life's  a  short  summer — man   a  flower — 
He  dies,  alas!   how  soon!   he  dies." 
BAR  AND  BENCH 

James  Ward,  lately  resident,  of  Griggsville  a  native  of  Ohio,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  bar,  a  Justice  of  the  Peace,  re-elected  because  of  his  business 
habits  and  honesty,  and  once  a  Probate  Judge,  filled  the  several  stations 
officially  just  named  and  passed  through  life  highly  respected  and  success- 
ful. He  left  a  worthy  family  and  numerous  relatives. 

LORD  COKE 

The  Speaker  of  the  Lobby,  "who  mixed  reason  with  pleasure  and 
wisdom  with  mirth,"  James  W.  Whitney,  was  a  native  of  Massachusetts, 
a  man  of  considerable  early  education,  having  some  knowledge  of  Latin. 
TTo  came  to  Illinois  before  the  organization  of  the  State  government, 
which  took  place  in  1818.  He  resided  at  an  early  day  at  or  near  Ed- 


22  HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY 

wardsville,  in  Madison  county,  in  this  State.  He  was  very  taciturn  when 
the  subject  of  his  own  life  was  introduced;  some  suppose  he  left  memoirs 
thereof,  if  so,  this  writer  has  been  unsuccessful  in  finding  such.  The 
earliest  Record  Book  of  the  Circuit  Court  of  Pike  county  contains  his 
handwriting  and  he  was  in  1821  Clerk  of  that  Court;  he  wrote  a  peculiar 
hand  and  if  style  of  writing  is  an  index  he  should  have  been  an  oddity; 
he  was  such  in  some  respects.  One  at  first  sight  would  in  the  earlier  days 
of  Pittsfield  have  taken  him  to  be  a  well  preserved  preacher  or  school- 
master of  the  days  of  the  earlier  Adamses.  His  dress  was  plain  to  home- 
liness, not  being  very  prosperous  and  being  indifferent  in  matters  of  that 
kind,  his  hair  was  sparse,  was  combed  all  to  the  back  of  his  head  and 
tied  often  with  a  buckskin  s;rlng  or  old  blick  shoestring  as  a  queue.  He 
was  a  cosmopolite  of  Illinois  (so  to  speak).  His  journeys  were  generally 
made,  especially  on  the  Military  Tract,  on  foot  and  alone;  he  had  an  ex- 
tensive acquaintance,  he  put  up  where  night  found  him,  with  a  friend. 
Upon  such  trips  he  was  garrulous  and  carried  the  news,  when  newspapers 
were  scarce.  He  lived  often  alone  in  a  log  cabin,  at  times  at  the  city  of 
Quincy,  and  thereafter  in  Pike  county,  in  Pleasant  Hill  township.  He 
never  had  a  large  library,  but  "bore  the  name  of  a  learned  man  amongst 
those  little  used  to  books. 

Whitney  acquired  from  this  reputation  the  name  of  "Lord  Coke." 
He  was  delighted  to  be  so  called,  and  he  was  thus  extensively  and  better 
known  than  by  his  proper  name. 

When  theaters  and  shows  were  rare,  at  the  convening  of  the  Illinois 
Legislature  all  were  agog,  citizens,  judges,  and  legislators  to  witness  the 
convening  of  "The  Lobby."  It  was  a  great  event.  A,  great  throng  would 
assemble  and  after  some  ceremony  "Lord  Coke"  would  mount  the  stand 
and  call  the  house  to  order.  He  would  deliver  h'is  annual  message,  which 
would  be  received  with  cheers  and  laughter.  M.iny  hits  and  jokes  were 
embodied  in  the  message.  Sometimes  the  satire  was  very  broad  and  Lord 
Coke  hurt  his  standing  with  the  Supreme  Court  by  a  farcial  account  of 
that  Court  and  leading  member?  of  the  bar  meeting  to  "exterminate  the 
varmints"  of  the  State. 

Lord  Coke  presided  over  the  Lobby  with  magisterial  sway,  and  when 
mock  heroics  moved  the  man  he  would  be  a  very  important  personage. 
The  Lobby  was  organized  by  appointing  subordinate  officers  and  numerous 
committees;  the  titles  and  functions  of  those  committees  would  be  of  the 
most  ludicrous  character,  and  the  members  composing  the  same  of  physi- 
cal form,  public  standing,  and  personal  bearing  the  most  opposite  of  the 
position  and  character  'S  assigned  on  committee. 

As  an  instance,  Colonel  Thomas  Mather,  President  of  the  State  Bank 
of  Illinois,  was  a  man  short  in  stature,  but  of  great  rotundity  of  person, 
quiet  in  demeanor;  Judge  Thonus  Brown  and  Jesse  Thomas,  Jr.,  were 
fine,  portly-looking  gentlemen.  Such  as  these  Lord  Coke  would  announce, 
and  that  in  print,  as  the  most  suitable  members  of  a  committee  on  gym- 
nastics and  ground  and  lofty  tumbling. 

At  the  meetings  of  the  Lobby,  which  were  frequent,  sometimes 
nightly  during  the  session  of  the  Legislature,  in  the  earlier  days  of  Illi- 
nois, reports  of  committees  would  be  called  for  and  were  submitted. 
These  would  be  in  accord  with  the  burlesque  titles  of  the  committees; 
these  reports  were  often  written  by  Coke  himself  and  there  was  a  broad 
personality  in  them  rather  Hudibrastic. 

At  the  sessions  of  the  Lobby  would  be  seen  the  prominent  men  of 
the  State,  including  Judges,  members  of  the  Legislature  and  or  the  Bar. 


HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY  23 

When  legislation  assumed  grave  proportions,  involving  popular 
topics,  as  the  "Illinois  Canal  and  Internal  Improvements,"  or  "The  Banks 
of  the  State,"  you  would  see  Murray  McConnel,  John  J.  Hardin,  Douglass, 
Lincoln,  binder,  Cavalry,  and  others  on  the  floor  taking  part  in  debates 
produced  by  resolutions  offered  in  the  Lobby.  These  would  be  ably  con- 
ducted and  with  great  spice  of  debate.  Some  matters  very  prejudicial  to 
the  State  were  considered  in  a  popular  but  not  statesmanlike  manner  in 
this  debating  society  of  the  State. 

The  "Internal  Improvement  System  of  Illinois,"  which  engulfed 
Illinois  in  a  worse  than  useless  de'bt,  owes  its  paternity  to  the  spirit  of 
the  Lobby. 

The  Canal  and  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad,  and  the  more  modern 
roads  of  the  State,  are  not  to  be  understood  as  included  in  the  unfavor- 
able comment  as  to  improvements. 

The  system  proposed  in  the  Lo'bby  was  too  lavish,  indiscriminate 
and  expensive  for  the  times.  And  yet  how  much  of  its  project  has  been 
since  carried  out. 

Lord  Coke  never  was  a  family  man  in  Illinois.  Iti  is  said  there  was 
a  hidden  sorrow  in  this  particular  before  he  came  to  Illinois. 

At  the  bar,  Whitney  was  not  successful.  There  was  a  want  of  prac- 
tical, everyday  sense  and  his  law  was  often  obsolete.  He  is  dead  many 
years  and  passed  away  less  noticed  in  his  demise  than  many  men  of  less 
note. 

ALPHEUS  WHEELER 

"A  youth  to  fortune  and  to  fame  unknown, 
Fair  science  frowned  not  on  his  humble  birth." 

Who  that  ever  saw  his  tall,  ungainly  form  and  heard  him  address  a 
public  body  could  ever  forget  him? 

He  was  a  mem'ber  of  the  bars  he  came  to  Pike  county  in  1833  or 
1834,  and  resided  for  sometime  at  Highland  then  occasionally  preaching. 
In  1838  and  1840  he  was  elected  to  the  Legislature  of  Illinois,  and  in 
that  body  he  was  regarded  as  an  oddity.  He  made  some  of  his  peculiar 
speeches  and  in  his  career  in  the  Legislature  encountered  the  wit  and 
humor  of  another  marked  man,  but  of  a  more  elevated  type  of  manhood 
ond  education,  namely,  Usher  F.  Linder,  who  died  recently  at  Chicago. 
Linder  told  his  story  of  the  old  woman  and  her  pet  coon  on  Wheeler  in 
the  Legislature  and  broke  down  the  influence  Wheeler  and  his  friends 
anticipated  he  would  have  therein.  For  some  years  Wheeler  had  a  law 
office  in  Pittsfield  and  obtained  considerable  business;  he  took  great  pride 
in  his  oratorical  efforts,  and  made  some1  lofty  flights  in  his  forensic  dis- 
plays. 

On  one  occasion  Wheeler  addressed  the  jury  and  said,  in  reply  to 
the  mere  remirk  from  Woodson  that  he  submitted  the  case  without  any 
speech,  which  was  intended  to  prevent  Wheeler  from  speaking:  "Gentle- 
men, I  admire  the  State's  Attorney;  he  has  shown  the  most  sublime  elo- 
quence, as  from  some  men  it  consists  in  most  profund  silence." 

Again  he  said  of  Woodson:  "His  eloquence  is  like  the  tall  thunder 
amongst  the  lefty  oaks,  coming  down  for  to  split  things.'* 

This  speecoh  caused  ?ome  one  who  had  a  ready  hand  at  a  rough 
pencil  sketch  to  draw  a  picture  of  a  man's  head  with  a  big  nose  elevated 
in  a  tree  top,  that  was  upon  the  west  wall  of  the  Court  room  at  Pittsfield, 
find  remained  there  for  many  years,  until  the  house  was  whitened  up  on 
the  inside.  That  big  nose  was  a  caricature  of  Wheeler's. 


24  HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY 

Wheeler  brought  many  suits  for  trespass  and  other  causes,  and  on 
the  trial  of  these  much  merriment  was  produced  for  the  Judge,  lawyers, 
jurors  and  citizens.  Courts  were  great  occasions  in  those  days  and  drew 
crowds. 

In  a  case  for  killing  a  cow,  Wheeler,  in  reply  to  points  made  by  O. 
H.  Browning,  then  and  now  eminent,  said:  "The  gentleman  tells  you 
Gentlemen  of  the  Jury,  that  the  plaintiff,  my  client,  cannot  recover  in  this 
suit  because  the  cow  war'nt  no  cow,  because  she  never  had  a  calf,  but 
that  she  war  a  heifer.  Gentlemen,  that  are  not  the  notion  of  a  sound  and 
legal  lawyer,  but  the  notion  of  a  musharoon."  This  almost  convulsed  the 
Court  House  with  laughter. 

Another  objection  of  Browning's  in  this  case  that  Wheeler  answered 
was  thus  expressed:  "Gentlemen  of  the  Jury,  Mr.  Browning  says  that  cow 
war'nt  worth  a  cent.  Now,  gentlemen,  where  were  there  ever  a  cow  that 
war'nt  worth  a  cent?  That  cow  were  worth  something  for  her  meat,  if 
she  war'nt  worth  nothing  for  a  milk  cow — she  war  worth  something  for 
her  horns,  she  war  worth  something  for  her  hide,  if  not  for  her  meat  or 
milk,  and  gentlemen,  she  w-r  worth  something  because  the  tail  goes  with 
the  hide." 

The  cause  of  Browning's  point  was  that  Wheeler  had  failed  to  prove 
by  witnesses  the  worth  of  the  cow. 

A  suit  brought  by  Wheeler  for  one  Harpool  against  his  brother,  was 
for  damage  done  to  hogs,  by  cutting  the  toe  nails  off  the  hogs  so  as  to 
prevent  them  from  climbing.  Wheeler,  in  describing  the  injury  to  the 
hogs,  insisted  that  the  hogs  had  a  right  to  toe  nails  and  a  right  to  climb, 
and  that,  although  they  hud  clone  damage,  yet  it  was  laid  down  "root  hog 
or  die." 

One  Zumwalt  was  indicted  for  destroying  a  mill-dam  of  Doctor 
Hezekiah  Dodge's.  Wheeler  in  this  case  assailed  the  character  of  Dr. 
Dodge,  who  was  a  respectable  man  and  whom  the  Jury  did  believe.  Zum- 
walt was  convicted  upon  evidence  that  he  had  said  at  his  son-in-law's,  on 
the  night  of  the  destruction  of  the  dam  of  Dodge:  "Just  now  the  mus- 
rats  are  working  on  old  Dodge's  dam."  Wheeler  said  of  Dodge  on  the 
trial:  "Dr.  Dodge  are  a  man  so  devoid  of  truth  that  when  he  speaks  the 
truth  he  are  griped." 

During  another  of  the  lofty  flights  of  Wheeler,  a  wag,  John  Jay  Ross, 
a  lawyer  and  a  m..n  who  made  and  enjoyed  a  joke,  laughed  so  at  one  of 
Wheeler's  speeches  that  he  became  excited  and  turned  upon  Ross  in  a  very 
contemptuous  way,  with  a  majestic  sweep  of  his  long  arm,  brought  down 
at  Ross,  said:  "I  wish  I  had  a  tater,  I  would  throw  it  down  your  throat." 

The  speech  of  Wheeler  was  not  closed  that  evening,  and  the  next 
morning  early,  when  Wheeler  was  again  addressing  the  Jury,  and  Ross 
ut  the  bar  table,  by  some  hand  several  large  potatoes  were  put  down  in 
sight  of  Wheeler's  eye.  He  fired  up  and  let  out  a  torrent  of  invective  on 
Ross,  every  one,  Judge  and  all,  in  a  loud  roar  of  laughter. 

Wheeler  once  in  a  fine  frenzy  parodied  Shakespeare  thus: 

"Who  steals  my  purse  steals  trash, 

Robs  me  of  that  which  not  enriches  him  but  makes  me  poor, 
all  to  injure  my  client." 

Wheeler  went  to  southwestern  Missouri,  Bates  county,  before  the 
war,  and  we  lost  sight  of  him — he  is  said  to  be  dead. 

Strother  R.  Grigsby  was  formerly  County  Clerk  and  is  now  our 
respected  County  Judge. 


HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY  25 

J.  G.  Pettingil  has  been  School  Superintendent  of  Pike  and  is  highly 
esteemed. 

J.  M.  Bush  is  so  well  known  as  Editor  of  the  Democrat  that  he  needs 
no  commentary.  He  has  been  long  Master  in  Chancery  of  Pike,  and  has 
been  a  State  Senator,  filling  these  positions  all  most  acceptably.  He  is  a 
son  of  Daniel  B.  Bush  and  a  brother  of  the  Junior  of  that  name. 

James  S.  Irwin  is  well  known  as  a  prominent  lawyer  and  has  for 
many  years  had  a  large  practice. 

The  younger  bar  must  wait  for  the  next  history  to  record  their  ex- 
ploits. There  are  miny  useful  and  intelligent  men  amongst  them.  In- 
dustry, temperance  and  integrity  will  ensure  them  success. 

" PRAYER  ARDENT  OPENS  HEAVEN  " 

Amongst  those  long  gathered  to  the  rest  of  the  blessed  we  mention 
the  Rev.  William  Carter,  for  twenty-five  years  the  influential  good  father 
in  God  and  pastor  of  the  Congregational  Church  in  Pittsfield,  a  ripe 
scholar  and  pious  m?n,  he  had  his  peculiarities,  but  no  man  of  better  and 
truer  manhood  ever  lived  here. 

Dr.  Orin  S.  Campbell,  who  died  some  years  since,  went  to  Atlas  m 
1833  or  1834  and  resided  there  practicing  his  profession  of  medicine  as 
a  partner  of  Henry  J.  Ross,  M.  D.,  and  afterwards  removed  to  Pittsfield; 
he  was  also  in  partnership  for  a  time  with  Dr.  Worthington,  and  during 
his  career  as  a  physician  was  of  great  repute  and  very  successful.  He  was 
a  superior  scholar  and  a  man  of  great  pleasantry  with  men.  His  memory 
is  yet  green  amongst  us. 

Dr.  Benjamin  Norris,  a  graduate  of  Brown  University,  in  the  class 
with  Prentice;  of  the  Louisville  Journal,  came  in  1835  to  Pittsfield.  He 
was  a  native  of  Rhode  Island.  He  was  long  a  leading  physician,  and  very 
useful  and  successful,  as  numerous  families  can  well  attest.  He  was 
skilled  as  an  entomologist  and  sent  some  valuable  and  rare  specimens  of 
insects  to  the  Smithsonian  Institution;  he  hid  some  rare  specimens  and  a 
large  cabinet  of  insects  collected  by  himself,  which  he  left  in  high  state 
of  preservation  at  his  death. 

We  again  recur  to  the  living,  and  cannot  speak  of  all,  but  tax  our 
memory  as  to  those  widely  known  and  conspicuous  :nt  an  early  day.  Such 
are  those  who  lay  the  foundations  of  society  in  new  lands. 

Dr.  Alfred  C.  Baker  of  Barry  now,  at  an  early  day  of  Pittsfield,  once 
a  partner  of  Dr.  Worthington,  is  noted  in  his  profession.  He  is  a  man  of 
origimlity  and  intellect;  he  is  a  brother  of  the  illustrious  General  E.  D. 
Baker,  distinguished  in  Illinois  when  a  resident,  and  thereafter  a  Senator 
of  the  United  States  from  California,  who  was  slain  by  treachery  at  Ball's 
Bluff  in  Virginia.  He  was  a  man  of  brilliant  intellect,  an  orator  and  the 
finest  English  belle  letter  scholar,  when  residing  in  Illinois;  as  a  leader 
in  our  halls  of  legislation,  on  the  stump  and  at  the  bar,  he  often  address- 
ed the  Court  and  popular  assemblies  in  Pike  county  in  his  most  inimitable 
manner. 

THE   BATTLE   GROUND   OF  THE   GIANTS 

This  county  was  fcamous  for  the  political  and  forensic  discussions  of 
Lincoln,  Douglas,  John  T.  Stewart,  D.  M.  Woodson,  Orville  H.  Browning, 
Archy  Williams,  William  Thomas,  A.  W.  Cavalry,  Judge  Lyman  Trumbull, 
E.  D.  Baker,  Governors  Yates,  Palmer,  and  Oglesby,  James  Robertson, 
James  Allen,  Alexander  Starne,  Colonel  Richardson,  and  numerous  other 
public  men  have  addressed  the  Court  and  popular  assemblies  in  this 
county. 


26  HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY 

YOUNGER  AMERICA 

Milton  Hay,  now  ranking  high  as  a  lawyer  at  Springfield,  resided 
here  in  his  earlier  days  and  was- at  our  bar.  He  has  since  been  in  a  Con- 
stitutional Convention  and  in  the  Legislature  of  the  State. 

John  G.  Nicholay  edited  the  Free  Press  here,  and  his  been  Secretary 
to  President  Lincoln,  Consul  to  Paris,  and  is  now  Marshal  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  at  Washington. 

THE  JUDICIARY 

This  county  has  had  many  good,  useful  and  able  men  in  the  office  of 
Probate  Judge,  thereafter  called  County  Judge. 

Abraham  Beck  was  the  first  Judge,  nd  the  first  estate  administered 
upon  was  that  of  Peter  Bourke — John  Shaw,  administrator — Belus  Jones 
and  Barnabas  Haines,  securities.  The  caption  of  letters  issued  ran  as 
follows:  "The  People  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  by  the  Grace  of  God  free 
and  independent."  The  letters  were  dated  May  21,  A.  D.  1821. 

Second  Judge,  Nicholas  Hanson. 

Third  Judge,  William  Ross— May  1st,  1823,  to  July,  1825 — court 
being  held  at  Atlas. 

Fourth  Judge,  George  W.  Haight — from  July,  1825,  to  January,  1827. 

Fifth  Judge,  William  Ross — from  January,   1827,  to  December,  1834. 

Sixth  Judge,  M.  E.  Rattan — first  term  of  court  held  by  him,  January 
2',  1835. 

Seventh  Judge,  William  Watson — first  term,  April  1,  1837. 

Eighth  Judge,  D.  B.   Bush — first  term  November  6,   1837. 

Ninth  Judge,  Parvin  Paullin — first  term  October  7,   1839. 

Tenth  Judge,  I.  B.  Donaldson — first  term  October  2,  1843. 

Eleventh  Judge,  James  Ward — first  term  August,  1847. 

Twelth  Judge,  Charles  Harrington — first  term  December,  1853. 

Thirteenth  Judge,   Alfred   Grubb — first  term   December,   1857. 

Fourteenth  Judge,  John  W.  Allen — first  term  November  21,   1861. 

Fifteenth  Judge,  R.  M.  Atkinson — first  term  November  24,  1865. 

Sixteenth  Judge,  Strother  Grigsby — first  term  December,  1873 — and 
now  in  office. 

The  Circuit  Court  of  Pike  county,  as  part  of  the  State  system  of 
Courts,  has  been  presided  over  by  many  Judges  at  different  periods  from 
1821  to  1876,  men  of  upright  characters  and  extended  judicial  fame. 
Pike  county  has  been  in  several  Judicial  Circuits  at  different  periods. 

THE   SYSTEM   OF   LOCAL   GOVERNMENT 

This  was  first  by  County  Commissioners,  three  in  number.  Of  these 
many  were  efficient,  and  none  ever  guilty  of  peculation.  In  1857  a  town- 
ship organization  was  adopted,  as  permitted  by  general  laws  of  the  State. 
Until  1876  twenty-one  political  townships  existed.  In  the  latter  year 
Levee  Township  was  organized  for  political  and  school  purposes. 

Under  this  system  the  county  affairs  have  been  well  managed.  No 
startling  acts  have  been  done  endangering  the  public  business  affairs,  and 
much  has  been  effected  to  advance  the  county  by  a  wise  administration  of 
her  affairs,  by  the  Board  of  Supervisors,  of  whom  many  have  been  wise 
as  local  and  county  officers. 

THE  CIRCUIT  COURT 

This  is  the  leading  court;  h'.s  general,  civil,  common  law  and  equity 
jurisdiction,  with  jurisdiction  in  criminal  cases.  The  Hon.  C.  L.  Higbee 


HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY  27 

is  the  able  and  dignified  judge,  unsurpassed  in  the  State  or  elsewhere, 
for  his  legal  ability  and  for  dispatch  of  business. 

George  W.  Jones  is  now,  and  has  been  at  several  periods,  Clerk  of 
this  court,  and  is  an  able,  upright  officer. 

James  H.  Crane  has  been  Clerk  of  this  court,  and  is  now  an  efficient 
and  gentlemanly  deputy  clerk  in  the  office  of  Mr.  Jones. 

J.  J.  Topliff,  M.  D.,  now  resident  of  Griggsville,  was  predecessor  of 
Jones,  and  was  a  very  gentlemanly,  honest  officer. 

EXECUTION   FOR   MURDER 

It  may  be  well  to  mention  that  up  to  this  Centennial  year,  but  one 
execution  for  murder  has  been  carried  out  under  sentence  of  the  law 
since  Pike  county  has  been  of  its  present  reduced  limits. 

LAND  SUITS 

Many  and  serious  land  suits  have  been  decided  in  our  courts. 
THE   COUNTY   COURT 

This  has  jurisdiction  as  a  Probate  Court,  and  likewise  in  appellate 
cases  of  civil  and  criminal  nature  from  justices  of  the  peace,  and  has  ori- 
ginal civil  jurisdiction  of  cases,  such  as  a  justice  has,  but  higher  in 
amount,  up  to  $500. 

The  present  judge  is  Hon.  Strother  Grigsby,  who  fills  the  office  with 
dignity  and  impartiality.  His  decisions  are  sound  and  acceptable.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  bar. 

Richard  M.  Atkinson,  who  is  a  member  of  the  bar,  was  an  upright 
and  able  judge  in  this  court  for  several  years,  immediately  before  the  term 
of  Judge  Grigsby. 

We  will  file  a  list  of  the  earlier  County  or  Probate  Judges  and  the 
dates  of  their  terms  of  office. 

All  who  served  in  that  office  were  respected  and  proved  to  be  honest 
men. 

SCHOOLS 

Of  course,  at  the  earliest  days  and  for  many  years,  there  were  none. 

The  earliest  we  know  of  was  at  Atlas,  and  the  first  brick  school' 
house  was  likely  there,  long  used  as  a  meeting  house  by  the  few  religious 
denominations.  Gradually  schools  sprung  up  over  the  county  and  a  com- 
mendable zeal  for  education  has  existed,  especially  since  the  public  school 
system  was  adopted  hy  the  Illinois  Legislature. 

Griggsville  erected,  about  twenty  years  since,  a  spacious  and  sightly 
two-story  brick  house  which  was  burned,  and  is  replaced  by  one  similar 
to  the  former.  In  these  have  been  kept  large  and  excellent  schools. 

Pittsfield,  in  1861,  began  and  in  about  two  years  completed  a  very 
handsome  two-story  brick  school  house  now  in  use,  and  containing  a  base- 
ment and  eight  spacious  rooms  for  schools,  all  filled  at  times  with 
scholars.  It  is  conducted  under  the  graded  system  of  instruction  and  has 
a  high  or  advanced  school,  teaching  languages  and  sciences;  Its  principles 
and  teachers  have  been  of  a  high  order  of  merit. 

Brick  or  spacious  frame  houses  exist  in  all  the  large  towns  in  the 
county,  and  numerous  sightly  and  well  built  school  houses  abound  and 
are  in  view  every  few  miles  in  all  parts  of  the  county. 


28  HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY 

The  pecuniary  support  is  derived  from  local  funds,  in  part  from  the 
land  grant  of  the  United  States,  of  a  section  to  each  township;  by  taxa- 
tion by  the  school  officers,  and  by  a  pro  rata  from  a  fund  raised  by  legis- 
lative provision  periodically. 

The  schools  are  free  to  all  children  from  six  to  twenty  years  of  age. 

The  aforesaid  houses  in  Pittsfield,  Griggsville  and  other  localities  are 
successors  of  more  simple  or  rude  structures. 

NEWSPAPERS   IN   PIKE 

The  Sucker  began  in  1842,  and  was  the  earliest  published  in  the 
county.  Its  proprietor,  and  editor  was  Michael  J.  Noyes,  a  remarkable 
man,  of  frank  manners,  industrious,  shrewd,  of  fair  education,  honest  in 
his  business.  In  early  life,  as  a  land  surveyor  he  laid  off  land  for  the 
United  States  under  contract,  when  original  surveys  were  made.  He  was 
a  native  of  New  Hampshire,  and  true  to  the  views  of  his  Northern  ances- 
try, was  an  advocate  of  freedom.  He  was,  before  removing  to  this  county, 
clerk  of  the  circuit  court  of  Pike  County,  Missouri.  He  died  respected 
and  honored,  a  leading  officer  in  the  Masonic  fraternity,  and  leaving  his 
wife,  the  partner  of  his  early  life,  and  a  numerous  family. 

The  Free  Press  was  established  in  lieu  of  the  Sucker.  The  first 
number  it  dated  Pittsfield  and  Griggsville,  Monday,  April  13,  1846,  pub- 
lished every  Thursday  (thereafter).  Its  second  number  is  dated  Thurs- 
day, April  23;  editors  and  proprietors  Z.  N.  Garbutt  and  M.  H.  Abbott. 
It  was  a  Whig  paper. 

The  Sentinel,  established  in  1845,  by  T.  G.  Trumbull  and  G.  W. 
Smith,  the  former  as  editor.  After  it  ceased  its  material  and  patronage 
went  to  the  Union. 

The  Pike  County  Union,  established  on  April  25,  1849,  by  John  S. 
Roberts  as  editor  and  proprietor.  That  merged  into  the  Pike  County 
Democrat.  Mr.  Roberts  has  filled  several  responsible  lucrative  positions, 
and  is  now  a  justice  of  the  peace  in  Pittsfield. 

The  Pike  County  Democrat  was  published  under  that  name,  and  com- 
menced in  May,  1857.  Milton  Abbott  was  editor  and  proprietor.  He  sold 
out,  and  it  is  yet  continued  by  J.  M.  Bush,  at  Pittsfield,  vigorously  con- 
ducted. It  advocates  the  doctrine  of  the  Democratic  party  and  has  a  large 
circulation. 

T.  G.  Trumbull,  editor  of  the  Sentinel,  was  a  member  of  the  bar  of 
Illinois.  He  came  from  Connecticut,  and  was  a  nephew  of  the  celebrated 
painter,  Col.  Trumbull,  of  Washington's  military  family.  T.  G.  Trumbull 
had  but  little  business  at  the  bar.  He  was  peculiar,  and  if  asked  about 
early  rising  expressed  himself,  "That  it  was  not  best  to  be  about  until 
the  world  was  well  aired  by  the  uprisen  sun."  His  health  was  feeble,  his 
instincts  gentlemanly,  his  education  good,  and  retiring  habits.  He  hns 
long  been  buried  near  Pittsfield.  He  had  no  relatives  in  this  vicinity. 

The  Radical,  for  a  brief  time  published  as  the  exponent  of  a  senti- 
ment. It  was  edited  with  vim,  by  Major  Charles  S.  Sellon.  He  was  after- 
wards a  vigorous  and  useful  editor  of  the  Illinois  State  Journal,  published 
at  Springfield,  Illinois.  His  bravery  led  him  to  the  front,  and  he  served 
for  a  short  time  in  the  Union  Army.  By  deafness  he  was  physically  dis- 
qualified for  army  life.  He  died  a  young  man,  mourned  by  his  family  and 
many  friends.  He  is  buried  in  the  graveyard  of  St.  Stephen's  Church 
Pittsfield,  111.  He  was  a  son  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Sellon  of  New  York. 

The  Radical  was  reduced  like  a  razed  vessel,  until  it  was  The  Radi, 
under  command  of  O.  W.  Topliff,  and  lasted  only  a  short  time. 


HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY  29 

The  Pike  County  Journal  was  the  offspring  of  the  Free  Press,  and 
was  established  by  Daniel  B.  Bush,  Jr.,  in  1860,  and  edited  by  him  until 
a  sale  thereof  to  Robert  McKee.  The  Old  Flag  took  the  place  of  the 
fournal. 

The  Old  Flag  was  the  successor  of  the  Pike  County  Journal,  and  owes 
its  name  to  its  first  editor,  Robert  McKee,  who  was  an  able  man  when  at 
his  post.  Its  first  issue  was  in  the  first  week  in  March,  1868.  This-  paper 
yet  supports  ably  the  principles  of  the  Republican  party.  Robert  Criswell, 
once  a  spicy  editor  thereof,  is  now  in  the  far  West.  It  is  now  owned  by 
Messrs.  Jas.  Criswell  and  Jas.  Gallagher,  the  latter  being  its  efficient 
editor.  It  has  a  liberal  patronage. 

The  Barry  Adage,  published  weekly,  is  in  it",  second  or  third  year. 

The  Griggsville  Reflector  is  now  two  or  {.hree  years  old. 

Th,e  Milton  Beacon  is  now  in  its  second  year. 

The  newspapers  published  in  this  county  have  issued  only  once  a 
week. 

EXPORTS   OF  THE   FARM 

This  county  is  unsurpassed  for  its  winter  wheat.  Large  quantities 
are  exported  as  flour  and  wheat.  Beef  and  pork  are  staple  commodities, 
and  yield  an  immense  revenue  to  the  farmers.  Corn  is  a  most  abundant 
crop  and  enters  largely  into  commerce.  Grass  and  hay  are  produced  with- 
out stint. 

Fruits  of  all  kinds,  great  and  small,  abound.  The  apple  corp  when 
shipped  yields  a  great  income. 

PIKE  COUNTY  OF  1876 

Pike  County  in  1876  is  composed  of  territory  bounded  on  the  south 
by  the  peninsula  of  Calhoun  county,  stricken  off  from  the  original  terri- 
tory of  Pike;  beginning  on  the  south  and  embracing  range  seven  south 
of  the  base  line,  and  west  of  the  fourth  principal  meridian;  meandering 
the  Illinois  River  for  its  Eastern  boundary,  and  then  north,  including 
Township  three  south  two  west,  fronting  on  the  river,  and  also  including 
Township  three  south  ranges  three  and  four  west;  thence  west  from  the 
southwest  corner  of  Township  three  south  four  west,  or  Fairmount,  to  the 
Mississippi  River,  in  Township  four  south  eight  west;  thence  meandering 
with  the  channel  of  said  river  to  the  township  line  of  seven  south  five 
west  in  said  river,  including  twenty-six  townships  and  fractional  town- 
ships, laid  off  for  political  purposes  into  twenty-four  townships,  and 
designated  as  follows: 

Chambersburg,  Perry,  Fairmount,  Flint,  Griggsville,  New  Salem,  Had- 
ley,  Barry,  Kinderhook,  Levee,  Detroit,  Newburg,  Pittsfield,  Derry,  Pleas- 
ant Vale,  Montezuma,  Hardin,  Martinsburg,  Atlas,  Pearl,  Spring  Creek, 
Pleasant  Hill.  Sixteen  of  these  townships  are  six  miles  square,  and  the 
fractional  townships  are  of  various  sizes,  as  the  land  is  shaped  by  the 
flow  of  the  rivers  Illinois  and  Mississippi. — The  Illinois  running  in  most 
places  on  the  borders  of  the  County  nearly  south;  the  Mississippi  varying 
by  its  course  the  width  of  the  County,  from  about  thirty-eight  miles  on 
the  north  line  to  about  eighteen  on  the  south  line,  its-  course  being  to  the 
southeast. 

This  County  is  varied  in  its  surface.  Its  greatest  altitude  from  the 
rivors  being  about  three  hundred  and  ten  feet  on  the  summit  ridge. 
Various  large  water  courses  flowing  to  each  river  furnishing,  with  living 
springs  which  abound,  abundance  of  good  water.  The  soil  is  much  diver- 


30  HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY 

sified.  On  both  rivers  and  on  several  large  creeks,  there  is  a  large  acre- 
age of  fine  alluvial  land,  which  is  productive  when  properly  drained,  and 
much  of  it  required  no  drainage.  The  uplands  adjacent  to  the  bluffs  of 
the  two  rivers  are  rolling,  originally  mostly  timber,  now  largely  in  culti- 
vation. Nearly  every  Township  in  the  County  had  much  rich  and  beau- 
tiful rolling  prairie.  The  growth  on  a  portion  of  the  land,  in  many  town- 
ships, was  black-jack,  a  species  of  scrub  oak.  These  were  called  barrens, 
but  falsely  so-called,  as  some  of  the  finest  farming,  and  especially  wheat, 
and  grass  lands,  are  in  the  former  barrens. 

The  productions  of  the  County  are  diversified.  Corn,  wheat,  oats, 
rye,  and  all  small  grains  and  grapes  grow  and  with  great  luxuriance; 
sweet  and  Irish  potatoes  and  all  garden  vegetables  flourish.  Fruits  of 
every  kind  and  the  lesser  berries  yield  large  crops.  The  County  is  famed 
for  its  fine  stock  raising  qualities. 

The  minerals  are  varied  and  numerous,  but  none  developed  to  much 
extent.  Abundance  of  fine  stone  and  some  superior  quarries  exist.  There 
is  a  species  of  sandstone  which  opens  out  in  rectangular  figures  from 
natural  fissures.  Limestone  is  plentiful.  Near  Rockport  there  is  stone 
nearly  similar  to  marble  and  beautifully  veined.  Perry  and  other  medi- 
cinal springs  have  deserved  celebrity.  Salt  springs  exist,  but  as  yet  have 
not  availed  much  for  salt  producing.  It  is  evident  that  some  races  of 
people  have  delighted  to  inhabit  this  county.  Many  ancient  mounds 
exist.  Stone  cises,  or  coffins,  in  considerable  numbers  have  been  found, 
and  all  the  implements  of  the  stone  age  are  seen  as  original  here.  In  a 
state  of  nature  all  the  wild  fruits  of  this  latitude  were  abundant,  but  cul- 
tivation has  done  away  with  them. 

The  latitude  of  this  county  is  a  little  south  of  Philadelphia,  Penn. 

It  is  about  eighty  miles  from  St.  Louis  to  its  southern  boundary. 

The  leading  wagon  roads  of  emigrant  travel  pass  through  this  county. 

Numerous  old  ferries  exist  on  the  rivers  which  once  swarmed  with 
emigrant  wagons. 

The  navigable  waters  of  the  Illinois  and  Mississippi  rivers  on  the 
East  and  West  are  yet  of  immense  value  to  our  farmers  and  business  men. 
These  could  be  used  to  much  greater  advantage  and  less  cost  for  freight, 
were  the  boats  all  properly  constructed  to  avail  of  the  water  at  its  lower 
stages;  presupposing  that  the  National  Government  improves  the  rivers  by 
narrowing  and  deepening  the  channels,  upon  the  principle  of  constructing 
jetties  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  In  the  future,  great  developments 
will  be  made  of  how  to  manage  the  mighty  rivers  to  economize  and  to  use 
the  water  in  times  of  drouth. 

It  is  possible,  we  hold,  to  scour  out  and  thus  deepen  our  rivers  in. 
and  bordering  on  Illinois.  Competition  will  thus  increase  in  the  means  of 
transportation  as  freights  increase.  Who  can  foretell  the  destiny  of  the* 
West  with  deeper  rivers  and  sea-going  vessels?  Perhaps  ascending  many 
hundred  miles  above  New  Orleans  for  freights.  We  confidently  anticipate 
this. 

PUBLIC  BUILDINGS 

The  public  buildings  and  improvements  generally,  are  very  good 
Moderate  in  cost — not  pretentious  in  structure. 

The  first  Court  House  in  Pittsfield  was  a  small  frame,  standing  on 
the  alley  on  the  north  side  of  the  street  facing,  and  north  of  the  Public 
Square.  It  is  now  used  by  Joseph  Heck  as  a  store.  The  order  for  its 


HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY  31 

erection  was  made  by  the  County  Commissioners  on  the  4th  day  of  June, 
1833. 

The  second  Court  House  in  Pittsfield.  now  in  use,  was  built  in  1838-9 
by  County  funds,  derived  from  proceeds  of  sales  of  town  lots  of  Pittsfield, 
by  the  County  Commissioners.  The  first  sale  was  on  the  15th  day  of  May, 
1833.  Subsequent  sales  were  made  by  the  Commissioners  of  town  lots  all 
on  the  old  plat.  The  first  Court  House  was  also  built  out  or  proceeds  of 
early  sales.  The  present  Court  House  is  a  large  two-story  brick  with  a 
dome  and  high  roof.  It  is  in  good  repair.  The  court  room  for  the  Circuit 
Court  is  in  the  second  story,  and  has  two  jury  rooms  on  the  east  thereof. 
The  first  story  is  used  for  the  County  Court  and  public  offices.  This  house 
stands  in  the  center  of  a  public  square,  set  out  with  trees.  The  plat  of 
ground  is  three  hundred  and  forty  feet  square,  streets  surrounding  it. 
There  are  fire-proof  County  offices  near  the  West  entrance  to  the  square. 
It  is  handsomely  enclosed  with  a  plain,  painted,  wooden  fence.  Trees  are 
well-grown  and  mostly  of  native  kinds.  Blue  grass  and  white  clover 
clothe  the  ground. 

An  ornamental  two-story  brick  jail  is  upon  the  Northeast  corner  of 
the  streets  surrounding  the  square. 

These  now  in  use  are  the  second  structures  of  the  kind  in  Pittsfioid. 
The  first  jail  was  of  brick;  it  was  sold  and  afterwards  burned. 

POPULATION  AND  SETTLEMENT 

This  County  is  now  densely  settled  for  a  farming  country,  and  yet 
there  are  lands  now -unoccupied,  and  vast  tracts  owned  and  occupied  by 
few  families.  The  county  is  capable  of  supporting  a  very  much  larger 
population  than  is  now  therein.  Its  people  are  from  every  State  in  the 
United  States,  and  from  every  foreign  land,  almost,  which  has  sent  set- 
tlers to  the  middle  states,  and  are  intelligent,  industrious  and  enterprising. 

Public  roads  lead  to  all  the  towns  in  the  county  from  Pittsfield. 
Ferries  exist  at  many  points  on  the  rivers.  There  is  a  railway  and  wagon 
road  bridge  crossing  from  Pike  county  to  Hannibal,  Mo.,  and  a  railroad 
bridge  at  Louisiana. 

TOWNS   AND  VILLAGES 

Pittsfield  is  the  County  Seat,  and  laid  out  1833.     Railroad  here. 

Griggsville  is  about  the  same  age.     Railroad  here. 

Barry  was  Wooster,  and  is  not  quite  so  old.  Railroad  here.  These 
are  the  leading  towns. 

Perry  is  a  beautiful  town,  once  Boonville. 

Milton  was  laid  out  about  1836,  and  is  a  neat  village,  and  has  a  large 
flour  mill. 

Washington  was  laid  out  in  1836;  is  a  neat  village  and  has  a  large 
flour  mill. 

Chainbersburg  is  a  sightly  town. 

Kinderhook  is  handsomely  situated;  has  many  good  oulldlngs,  and  is 
on  the  H.  &  N.  R.  R.,  and  has  a  large  flour  mill. 

Pleasant  Hill  is,  as  its  name  signifies,  and  well  located.  A  railroad 
at  its  limits,  and  a  large  flour  mill,  business  houses  and  churcnes  in  town. 

Rockport,  on  the  Sny  Carte,  for  fifty  years  nearly  the  site  of  water 
mills;  is  an  interesting  business  location;  some  neat  stores  and  houses, 
and  a  very  nice,  roomy  brick  school  house  ornament  it.  A  large  trade  has 
existed  there. 


HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY 


We  cannot  enumerate  all  the  steam  flour  mills,  but  many  of  the 
towns  have  such  which  we  have  not  specified. 

Pleasant  Vale,  the  oldest,  and  New  Canton,  are  so  united  as  to  be  one. 
A  flouring  mill  and  the  usual  shops  for  trade  are  run  here. 

New  Hartford  and  Summer  Hill  are  neat  little  villages.  Postoffices, 
there,  and  churches.  Very  sightly  situated,  both  towns. 

Cincinnati,  on  the  Mississippi  river,  is  an  old  town,  but  has  not  grown 
much.  The  Sny  levee  may  promote  its  growth.  There  are  stores  and 
warehouses  there,  and  usual  shops. 

Atlas,  the  first  town  laid  out,  has  lost  standing  by  the  removal  of  the 
county  seat.  A  pretty  situation,  but  is  eclipsed  by  its  neighbor,  Rockport 
and  little  other  than  farming  is  now  carried  on  there. 

Detroit,  Time  and  Nebo  are  all  neat  little  villages,  each  having  one 
or  more  churches,  and  stores  and  shops.  Time  and  Nebo  each  have  a 
flour  mill. 

Florence,  first  called  Augusta,  was  laid  out  by  Green,  Barber,  Wor- 
thington  and  Davis,  and  if  big  hopes  could  have  so  made,  it  would  have 
rivalled  Peoria.  This  was  once  a  place  of  a  good  deal  of  business,  and 
the  landing  for  Pittsfield  from  steamboats.  In  1849  the  stampede  to  Cali- 
fornia set  it  back,  and  it  has  dwindled  ever  since. 

PERRY  AND  PERRY  TOWNSHIP 

Considerate  friends,  residents  thereof,  have  furnished  the  following 
as  to  that  locality  and  we  record  the  same: 

The  first  settler  was  Mr.  Lovelady,  in  1829.  David  Callis,  John  Bond, 
the  Akins,  Dorsey  and  Gregory,  in  1830.  David  Johnston  and  B.  L.  Mat- 
thews, in  1832. 

Mr.  Sutton  (Baptist)  preached  the  first  sermon  at  the  residence  of 
Mr.  Callis  in  1829. 

The  first  school  was  taught  by  Miss  French  in  1831.  She  now  resides 
in  Brown  county,  Illinois. 

The  first  merchant  w~.s  J.  S.  King,  who  was  the  first  postmaster. 
Mails  then  once  a  week. 

The  town  was  laid  off  in  1834  by  Boone  Scholl,  and  called  Booneville. 
The  next  year  relaid  by  N.  M.  Jones,  and  given  the  name  Perry.  First 
brick  kiln  by  Shepardin,  1833.  First  blacksmith,  W.  Vanpelt,  1838. 
Chenowith  and  Cirpenter  first  Justices  of  the  Peace,  1835. 

In  1836  population  poured  in. 

In  1836  Hugh  L.  Sutphin  became  resident  physician  and  was  after- 
wards a  very  worth  State  Senator.  He  is  dead. 

Perry"  was  incorporated  in  1851,  with  but  five  hundred  inhabitants. 

BUSINESS  HOUSES  NOW 

Five  dry  goods  stores,  two  hardware  and  tin  shops,  three  grocery 
stores,  one  foundry,  three  blacksmith  shops,  two  cabinet  shops,  six  church 
buildings,  a  public  school  house  of  four  departments,  and  three  hundred 
and  fifty  pupils,  three  physicians — Dunn,  Harris  and  W.illing — and  three 
shoe  shops.  This  is  a  sightly  town  and  does  a  prosperous  Dusmess. 

Mrs.  Fifield  is  postmistress.  Mails  daily.  The  Township  has  four 
hundred  and  seventy-five  voters  and  increasing  its  Vote  every  year. 

J.  K.  Cleveland,  who  has  for  many  years  been  on  the  Grand  Jury  at 
intervals,  is  the  leading  Justice  of  the  Peace. 


HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY  33 

MANUFACTURES 

The  towns  in  Pike.     Many  of  them  carry  on  manufactures. 
Barry  has  mills,  pork  houses  of  large  capacity,  blacksmith  and  other 

shops,  and  adjacent  a  large  woolen  mill,  established  by  the  Messrs.  Wike. 
Griggsville  has  a  large  carriage  shop  and   flour  mill,  and   the  usual 

stores  and  shops  of  lesser  trades. 

Milton  has  many  shops  and  has  a  pottery  doing  considerable  business. 
Handsome  stores  with  large  stocks  of  goods  are  here  open. 

Pleasant  Hill  has  mills  and  tobacco  factories.  That  Township  adja- 
cent is  first-class  tobacco  land,  and  good  for  other  crops. 

New  Hartford  and  Summer  Hill  each  have  blacksmith  shops  and 
stores.  Coopers  make  barrels  here  to  a  large  amount. 

El  Dara  has  a  large  flour  mill  and  usual  small  shops. 

Perry  has  a  woolen  mill,  flour  mill,  and  the  usual  shops  of  trades. 

Chambersburg  has  a  flour  mill,  stores  and  usual  shops  of  trades. 

Kinderhook  has  a  flour  mill  and  usual  shops  of  trades. 

Rockport  has  some  shops  of  trades,  and  recently  a  large  flour  mill 
was  burned.  Coopers  made  or  sold  a  large  amount  of  barrels  at  this  place. 

Pittsfield  has  two  large  and  well-equipped  flour  mills,  a  woolen  mill, 
three  or  four  wagon  shops,  two  considerable  carriage  shops,  two  tobacco 
factories,  and  some  lesser  workers  in  tobacco,  a  foundry,  several  black- 
smith shops  a  large  factory  for  fan  mills  to  clean  grain  and  seeds,  numer- 
ous large  stores  of  various  kinds;  and  some  subdivision  of  business  exists. 
The  grocery  is  distinct  from  dry  goods.  Stores  for  finer  wear  for  men  and 
women,  and  hats,  caps  and  boots  exist.  Four  hardware  stores,  and  all 
selling  more  or1  less  machinery.  Sale  and  manufacturing  shops  of  furni- 
ture are  carrying  on  business,  and  the  lesser  trades  are  carried  on.  Three 
drug  and  medicine  stores,  shops  to  sell  candy  and  small  wares,  and  three 
barber  shops. 

SOCIETIES 

This  county  has  numerous  literary  and  other  societies. 

The  first  library  was  founded  in  Atlas  in  1833-4.  Part  of  the  books 
now  exist  in  the  Pittsfield  Library,  an  incorporated  institution,  the  second, 
of  a  general  nature.  It  has  several  hundred,  and,  perhaps,  exceeding  one 
thousand  volumes.  Libraries  exist  in  other  towns. 

Pike  County  has  had  more  than  one  organization  as  an  Agricultural 
Society,  and  one  now  exists,  located  at  Pittsfield.  It  has  twenty  acres  or 
more  of  beautiful  ground  on  section  twenty-five,  south  of  Pittsfield  one- 
half  a  mile.  A  Horticultural  Society  Antiquarian  Society,  and»Old  Settlers 
Society  exist. 

CHURCHES   AND   RELIGION 

Religion,  or  the  worship  of  Almighty  God,  is  in  high  repute. 

Houses  of  worship  of  brick  and  frame,  and  even  stone,  exist.  In  all 
the  larger  towns  will  be  found  the  following  denominations,  and  even  over 
the  country,  a  diversity  of  church  fellowship  exists.  The  churches  are: 
Methodist  Episcopal,  and  other  styles,  as  well  as  German  Methodist; 
Baptist,  Presbyterian,  Congregational,  Christian,  Lutheran,  Protestant 
Episcopal,  United  Brethren,  Roman  Catholics,  and  there  may  be  others. 

HOTELS  IN  PITTSFIELD 

The  Pittsfield  House,  kept  by  George  T.  Edwards  on  Northwest  cor- 
ner of  the  Square. 


34  HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY 

The  Oregon  House,  kept  by  Abraham  Butz,  on  Southwest  corner  of 
the  Square. 

The  Mansion  House,  kept  by  Joel  Pennington,  south  side  of  the 
Square.  All  the  foregoing  are  brick  houses. 

LIVERY  STABLES 

George  Edwards,  on  South  side  of  the  Square. 
James  F.  Stobie,  West  of  Oregon  House — same  lot. 
Pennington  &   Co.,  Southwest  corner  of  the  square.     All  well  equip- 
ped, and  carriages,  close  and  open,  as  well  as  horses  and  buggies  for  hire. 

STEAMBOATS 

Up  to  1833  a  boat  by.  steam  was  rarely  up  the  rivers — Illinois  and 
Mississippi — more  than  once  in  two  weeks.  Special  trips  were  made  to 
Spring  Lake,  in  Pike,  near  Atlas,  by  the  William  Wallace,  and  one  or  two 
other  steamers  up  to  1835,  to  carry  goods  to  Atlas  and  to  take  out  freight. 

Now  five  steamers,  elegantly  equipped,  make  daily  trips  in  good 
stages  of  water,  on  the  two  rivers,  unless  in  winter  when  ice-bound.  But 
few  weeks  occur  when  a  daily  packet  does  not  ascend  the  Mississippi  for 
Quincy  and  above.  Packets  ply  on  the  Illinois  river  daily,  ascending  as 
high  as  the  canal  at  LaSalle. 

Tow  boat  steamers  run  up  and  down  with  fleets  of  large  barge-like 
boats,  with  grain,  stone  and  lumber  on  the  Illinois  river;  these  being  the 
freights  descending. 

The  mode  of  navigation  in  an  earlier  day  was  in  keel  boats  with  poles 
and  by  cordelling;  and  descending,  only  flat  bottom  boats  and  rafts  were 
floated  down  stream. 

COUNTY  SURVEYORS 

This  office  has  usually  been  filled  by  men  of  upright  character  and 
very  able.  We  cannot  pretend  to  enumerate  them. 

David  Johnson,  one  of  those  Surveyors,  in  office  about  thirty  ye.irs 
ago,  is  yet  alive.  He  was  an  energetic  man  and  Surveyor  and  of  great 
worth. 

A.  G.  Chamberlain,  who  lives  at  Barry,  has  been  a  deputy  surveyor 
several  times  under  the  County  Surveyor.  He  is  a  superior  surveyor,  and 
an  intelligent,  honest  man. 

Gordon,  of  Griggsville,  in  his  ripe  old  age,  survives.  He  was  a  good 
Surveyor  in  his  day. 

Joseph*  Goodin  we  have  spoken  of  elsewhere. 

Harris,  recent  incumbent  of  the  office  of  County  Surveyor,  is  a  gen- 
ius, a  good  companion,  an  upright  man,  and  useful  in  his  office.  His  suc- 
cessor is  Mr.  Clare,  elected  in  1875.  He  opens  out  well  for  a  young  offi- 
cer. We  predicta  useful  career  for  him. 

APOLOGY   OF   THE    HISTORIAN 

In  ending  these  outlines  for  history,  biography  and  memoirs,  pre- 
pared in  a  brief  space  of  time,  almost  without  books  of  reference,  and 
with  little  aid  from  other  sources, the  historian  craves  your  lenient  judg- 
ment. 

With  the  conqueror,  but  not  as  a  conqueror,  I  say  "Veni,  Vidi,"  "I 
came,  I  saw,"  but  the  Vici.  the  last  word  of  that  phrase,  I  am  not  vain 
enough  to  appropriate. 


HISTORY    OF    PIKE    COUNTY  35 

If,  like  the  swan,  this  be  my  expiring  song,  I  say  with  tne  Roman, 
"dignum  et  decorum  est  pro  patria  mori." 

May  this  County  and  Nation  have  many  Centennials,  but  to  offer  up 
the  prayer  that  any  of  my  adult  fellow  citizens  might  enjoy  the  next  Cen- 
tennial, would  be  in  vain  since  the  days  of  Methuselah. 

It  is  my  anticipation,  in  the  march  of  events,  that  the*  next  Centen- 
nial History  of  Pike  will  be  offered  by  a  lady. 

The  ladies,  God  bless  them,  'by  that  time,  will  have  superseded  the 
men  and  put  them  aside  as  false  gods.v  The  men  will  then  enjoy  "Otium 
cum  dignitate." 

Farewell  kind  friends;  may  your  paths  be  strewed  witn  flowers,  and 
every  blessing  attend  you. 

Adieu,  until  the  next  Centennial.     The  volume  is  closed. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 


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